Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War
by xKairix
Summary: After the Gram Scale, who knew that Ringo, Kururu and Simca would ever team up? Peeks at hotsprings, stupid bets, wars and pranks & a girl close to Agito/Akito and Ikki starts the Mission of the 3 Girls: The 'Kai-chan' Case AxOC IxR KxE FULL SUMMARY INSID
1. Chapter 1

**xKairix again! I'm obsessed with ****Air Gear**** right now and so I decided to write a fic about it that happens **_**after**_** the Gram Scale Tournament. Wrote this less than a day, phew! Quite the work out!**

**FULL SUMMARY: **_Set after the author's pityful and half-ass ending of the Gram Scale Tournament: It was the beginning of the after war and who knew that Noyamano Ringo, Sumeragi Kururu, and Simca would ever team up for the same thing they desire? With peeks at hot springs, bets of love, failed pranks and wars, a new girl showing up (with dark secrets to hide) seeming pretty close to Ikki and Agito/Akito begins the Mission of the Three Girls: The 'Kai-chan' Case. AxOC; IxR; KxE  
_**DISCLAIMER:** _I do not own Air Gear, sadly, but I do own the new character you are about to meet- err read...?_  
**NOTE!! The written ending is _NOT_ the _real ending_. It is _merely_ something that I _made up_. And yeah, it has quite a lot of holes in it but I couldn't care less (I'm just writing this for fun) but you can fill them up with soil and dirt and anything else you want (so that the story makes sense!).  
WARNING!! Contains swearing and some mild themes. Read at own risk.**

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**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the After War.

So the Gram Scale tournament has ended with no one winning but with – of course – some people losing.

Genesis (along with a dead Sora and Nike) had lost – gasp! – and so Kogarasumaru had advanced to the grand final where Sleeping Forest were sleeping… in a forest…of… the Trophaeum! Cough, anyways! The one-on-one battles of the two top teams in AT were highly intense and lengthy – which is one reason why the author's not going into detail, another because she's lazy and because it's nearly midnight - heck dammit! – and her imagination is failing her. You may insert things your own needs and ideas to fill in the holes that the author has left for you to complete.

So Kogarasumaru'd won one, Sleeping Forest'd won one, then Kogarasumaru'd won two, and Sleeping Forest'd won two, and so on until the final battle.

Ooh!

The thought of it had just left everyone sitting on the edge of their seats… or imaginary seats that were really not there.

The highly anticipated battle was between the two leaders of the two teams; the Thorn and Storm King (or Queen in Ringo's case). But the battle was different from all others, it… was passionate! ~

And no, it did _not_ contain naked, over-rated sex or making out between the two for those who are of the sick minded.

They had started with a heated _'run'_, sparks and fire of sorts flickering from under their AT wheels!

Oh wait, it was held in the Trophaeum… Discard the previous sentence!

But, yes, they started off with a heated _'run'_ (minus the fact that Ikki was struggling under the pressure inside of the 'forest' within Trophaeum and took a _very _long time before being able to run properly) and they'd talked… if that's the correct word.

"Why? Why do you wish so much to become the King of Kings and of Trophaeum?" Ringo'd asked Ikki.

"I… I don't know." Ikki'd looked down, pondering with that little brain of his.

"Then there's no reason for you to be here!" Ringo'd attacked Ikki but went very easy, being the soft and caring girl who loved the dumb and annoying boy with all her heart. She knew that he was at a disadvantage since she was the only person who could withstand the pressure inside the 'forest' due to the Sonia Road, leading her to be undefeated there.

Ikki had dodged it very awkwardly, still not completely used to the pressure, but had made it out in time. His eyes turned towards his friend, and swore for a second that he saw a ghost of a smile on her lovely face.

_She's going easy on me? That means she's…_

And, of course, being the boy to act first, think later, he came to the conclusion that-

_SHE'S UNDERESTIMATING ME?!_

And, being very hot-headed, he was set ablaze and was surrounded by fire… literally.

No longer, with this fiery anger, did he feel the pressure push down on him. He pulled back his fist and lowered his head and channelled the energy to flow through into his right fist. He stared at his target and locked eyes with the girl standing on a platform above him. He gave a fighting cry and jumped up to punch the girl above him and-

_BAM!_

Only… it wasn't Ringo he'd hit.

He had forgotten about the pressure and when he left the ground, the pressure had taken its toll on him and forced him back onto the ground.

"Damn…" – twitch – "it…"

Ringo'd stared at the fallen boy on the ground below her and sighed. She'd jumped down to help him get back up – who had muttered something about not being a baby anymore.

"Ikki… Do you want to know the reason I use ATs?" Ringo'd smiled. "It's because I believe… that everyone – every boy, every girl – has the right to '_run' _freely and obtain freedom and spread their wings and fly. All this fighting… for the Sky Regalia, is pointless. People suffer and die, friends and lovers fight and break bonds – it's sad isn't it? The Sky Regalia has brought nothing but trouble to our world, creating greedy sins and taking away people's freedom… and Sleeping Forest's freedom.

"Sleeping Forest has made it our duty to protect and Sky Regalia and the Trophaeum, preventing people from taking the Regalia and using it as it could bring much unfortunate things upon our beautiful world. But because of this, we have lost our wings and freedom to be able to fly in the sky – like you can Ikki.

"However… AT battles and stuff about Sky Regalia's, Sky Kings and so on… are slowly disintegrating your wings, Ikki. You're being blinded; the freedom you have to fly in the sky for a Regalia. And Kogarasumaru and Sleeping Forest being enemies… we never get to AT together freely – do we, Ikki? We're being bounded by chains caused of this Sky Regalia and our greedy sins and wants."

Tears.

"Ikki… promise me something… if you ever do win, and kill me… destroy the Sky Regalia… destroy the source of these sins we all carry… the darkness inside of our hearts… destroy the chains that bound us all and release us, like a trapped bird in a cage... and give everyone the gift to fly free in the sky together… please… as my dieing wish…"

"No."

"W-what?"

"No." Ikki'd looked up and stared into Ringo's blue eyes with seriousness and determination. "Because I'm not going to kill you, and we're going to get through this, destroy the Sky Regalia and '_run'_… _together._" Ikki smirked.

Ringo'd quickly wiped her tears away and smiled. "Okay," she'd breathed.

And so instead of killing each other off, they _'ran'. 'Ran' _to their heart's content.

The people experiencing the view watched… dazed, and amazed as Ringo and Ikki _'ran'_ and showed off their tricks and feelings and dreams through them – all their hard work, determination and sufferings were displayed which awed everyone. Their want to be able to AT together freely without any chains bound to them from the ground so they can fly in the sky in a different world where people don't compete and kill each other for a Sky Regalia and other greedy desires.

And as people had watched them… their hearts changed… their wants, desires, feelings, and dreams all changed. They'd no longer felt like competing for a stupid Sky Regalia so they can take over the world. They only felt like ATing freely with everyone. And as their hearts had changed, they'd cheered.

With the match ending with no winner, but two _very_ tired winners.

They'd helped each other to walk towards the Sky Regalia, arms around each other to support themselves and the other.

They'd faced the Sky Regalia and destroyed it, feeling everyone behind them and cheering.

And thus was the end of the Sky Regalia and the Gram Scale…

But not ATs.

---

"Ahh! Can't wait till tomorrow! Hm… Coffee…" Yawn. Stretch.

"Yay! Ikki-kun, let's have lotsa fun! ~" Glomp~.

"Oi! Don't hug me like that! Turn back into Agito!" Vein mark.

"I wonder if I'll see any naked girls…" Drool.

"Yeah…" Drool.

"K-Kazu-sama!" Punch.

"Why are you coming with us tomorrow, Migratory Bird?" Invisible vein mark.

"Hehe! Because of my Ikki-kun! ~" ~3

"'_Y-your' _I-Ikki-kun?!" Vein mark.

"Those three are at it again… And I hope I can spend some time with Akito…" Blush.

And as we follow our heroes, we can see that they are excited and ready to go to a hot springs resort out in the forest the next day with merry thoughts and attitudes – and some with more slightly perverted… Urgh.

Anyhoo, back with our heroes who are currently at a café very much like the one where Croissant Mask, Kururu and Simca came to tell Ikki a way to enter the Gram Scale tournament after he accidentally caused his team to be disqualified…

"Akito! Get off of me!" Ikki growled, trying to get the hugging boy off of him.

"Aw, why Ikki-kun?" Akito pouted cutely causing Nakayama to blush at his cuteness.

Emily saw and smirked. She shuffled cunningly over to Nakayama and poked her multiple times. "_So_," she said slyly and holding the sound a bit longer.

"So what?" Nakayama blushed as she knew fully well what her friend was implying.

"You know… Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge." Emily wiggled her eyebrows.

"B-but… What about you and Kazu?!" Nakayama retorted back.

"Ahh…"

Silence.

"WHERE ARE YOU KAZU-SAMA?!"

And so the said girl ran off to find her lover, who was currently with the perverted pig looking at dirty magazines behind a newspaper… which of course earned him a big punch in the face when he was caught by Emily…

Nakayama sighed and started to talk to Akito, who got rejected by Ikki when Ringo, Kururu and Simca started talking to him – _Wah! Ikki-kun is so mean! ~_

"So, Ikki-kun~, who do you love?" Simca purred, leaning forwards and resting her chin on her palms, while also seducingly resting her rack on the table.

Kururu was _not_ impressed by this. She frowned at the pink-haired girl before turning to face Ikki with an angelic smile. "Yes, please tell us." She tried not to sound too excited.

Ringo felt like puking – _If only Ikki knew how they really act…_ She smiled at Ikki but tried not to look seducing like Simca or innocent and angelic like Kururu, it was more at eased and relaxed.

"Huh? Who do I love?" Ikki repeated dumbly.

The girls felt the urge to roll their eyes and kill the dense boy.

"Yes…"

Twitch.

A dark aura started to choke the other people in the café.

Ikki was oblivious to it.

"Hm…"

The girl's leaned closer, waiting to hear their name.

"I love…"

"Kiki-chan!"

…_Kiki-chan?_

The three girls saw someone hugging their lover. Their jaws dropped.

"Kai-chan!" Ikki laughed.

The three girls realized that if you put all of Ikki's words together, it makes: "I love… Kai-chan!"

… _Isn't Kai a boy's name? ... He's gay…?_

And on that very day, the three girls made it their mission to:

1. Investigate this 'Kai-chan'

2. Get close to this 'Kai-chan'

3. Find out Ikki-kun's relationship with this 'Kai-chan'

4. If need be, break the bonds between Ikki-kun and this 'Kai-chan'

5. Last resort: Eliminate this 'Kai-chan'

And if they wanted to reach their goals, they realized something very important…

Thus their new mission was the only time Noyamano Ringo, Sumeragi Kururu and Simca _ever_ worked together.

**To be continued… right now! Because the author reckons the chapter is too short to be published on as it is!**

Ringo, Kururu and Simca rosed from behind Ikki and stared at the supposedly boy- err… 'Kai-chan' and stared at the mass of black hair.

_It's too long and silky to be a guy's… Unless…_

A disturbing of a male with silky long black hair filled their minds. They all cringed.

"What are you doing here?" Ikki asked 'Kai-chan'.

The person lifted their head and smiled cutely. "I wanted to see you, Kiki-chan!"

The three girls realized that… 'Kai-chan'… was indeed… not a guy… but a girl…

_A girl that is currently in Ikki-kun's arms!_

A dark aura loomed behind Ikki and 'Kai-chan'.

"Hm?" 'Kai-chan' opened her eyes, revealing crystal clear blue eyes… or eye since her side fringe was covering her left eye.

The three girls instantly stopped and the dark aura was gone as they stared at the blue-eyed girl staring back at them, and realized that the girl was _indeed_ very pretty.

With wide crystal blue eyes, long silky black hair, blue streaked fringe, slightly pale complexion, and a natural pout of her lips, it was easy to see that the girl was popular among males.

_All the more reason to find out her relationship with Ikki-kun!!_

"O-oh-ho-ho? Who's thi-this-this... pretty chi-child here? A f-friend of y-yours, Ikki-kun?" Simca smiled, faking innocence.

"I... w-wonder," Ringo added, hiding her jealousy.

Kururu only stared at the girl.

"Oh!" A light bulb appeared above Ikki's head. "This is Kai-chan! Kai-chan, this is Ringo, Kururu, and Simca."

"B-but isn't Kai a boy's name?" Kururu asked, also hiding her jealousy and faking sweet. The girls beside her nodded in unison.

They suddenly felt a dark aura directed at them and saw that the girl was glaring at them.

"Haven't you ever heard of the word 'nickname'?" she sneered, mocking them though with not much emotion.

The girls twitched.

_How can such a cute kid be so rude? Reminds me of Agito…_

"So, what's your real name?" Simca asked sweetly, which made the girl want to gag.

"Hn. Kairi." Kairi stared at them with her red eye.

The three girls stared at the red eye and realization dawned on them.

_Wait… Didn't she have blue eyes?_

"H-hey… w-wasn't your eye blue?" Kururu exclaimed, voicing the other two girl's thoughts.

"No," Kairi answered bluntly.

She received strange looks.

"Oh," Ikki said. He lifted his hand up to Kairi's face – which greatly troubled the three girls – and brushed away Kairi's fringe, revealing a blood red and crystal blue eye.

"Kai-chan got into an accident when she was young so that's why her left eye is red," Ikki explained.

Kairi quickly swatted Ikki's hands away and pulled his ear and yanked him down to her level – _hard_. "I told you not to do that in public!" she hissed into it.

"OW!! STOP THAT, KAI-CHAN!! IT HURTS!! UWAH!!" Ikki cried.

Ringo, Kururu and Simca gasped then pushed the girl off Ikki's lap.

"How _dare_ you hurt Ikki-kun like that!" Simca spat, all sweetness gone.

"Ah! Ikki-kun, are you alright?" Kururu knelt by the boy in pain.

"Ah! Kairi-chan! Apologize now!" Ringo ordered the girl. "You should- Huh?"

Kairi was sitting on the floor with tears in her eyes; her cute sobs caused everyone to turn their way.

"A-ah! Are you alright, little girl?" a middle-aged random asked as he knelt beside Kairi.

Kairi glared at him, red eye glowing. "I'm not _little. _I'm fourteen," she spat before sobbing once again.

More people came to comfort the girl.

"Who did this?" a woman asked. She saw the three girls (**Ringo, Kururu and Simca of course. I'm going to refer to them as this because it's too annoying writing out their names all the time**) and gasped. "You did this?"

"Y-yeah…" Kururu answered lamely.

The people who came to comfort Kairi started badmouthing the three girls for making her cry.

While this was happening, Ikki had crawled towards Kairi and had picked her up bridal style. He stood up and said loudly, "I WANT AKITO AND AGITO'S MAN-BABIES!!"

Everyone was silent as they turned towards him.

_You idiot…_ Agito thought as he felt like slapping himself. Whereas

Akito had no comment and decided not to slap himself since _he_ was the one who was controlling the body.

"Just kidding, but it got your attention, no? Anyway, it's alright, Kai-chan is okay. It was my fault so if you want to take it our on someone, blame me." Ikki scratched his head with one hand. (**And for those of you who read carefully, Ikki's carrying Kairi bridal style but, no, he didn't drop her. He's used to it, you'll see why later on. XD**)

Murmurs rose in the crowd.

"Aw, that's so cute."

"Do you think they're a couple? Or are they brother and sister?"

"They look too different to be brother and sister…"

"I wish I could be like that…"

Everyone went back to their respective places.

"Kiki-chan didn't have to do that…" Kairi murmured into Ikki's ear.

"Nah, it's alright. Gotta protect you with my life, don't I?" Ikki grinned.

Kairi looked up and stared into Ikki's eyes, secretly telling him something. Ikki nodded.

The three girls didn't like this.

"Why don't you sit with us, Kairi-chan?" Simca asked, as she spotted the spot next to her, away from Ikki.

"Ah, I wouldn't want to trouble you guys…" Kairi frowned, looking downwards.

"Pfft. No worries, no worries. It's O-K," Ikki said and placed Kairi down beside him and Ringo.

_Damn, she's still sitting next to Ikki-kun…_

"Sorry," Kairi said to Ikki.

Ikki grinned. "Well, I just have to remember not to do that in public anymore, right? Don't worry about it. You hurt me all the time anyway."

'_All the time'…?_

"Not really," Kairi pointed out. "I haven't seen you for a long time."

"Hm, yeah. True." Ikki laughed.

Ringo was carefully watching Kairi and realized something.

"Ne, Kairi-chan…"

"Hm?"

"Sorry for asking but… does your personality change when your fringe covers a different eye?"

Silence.

"I—"

"Nah, she just has major mood swings," Ikki answered, putting his arm around her with a big grin.

_BAM!_

"Do. _Not_." Kairi lowered her fist.

The three girls bent over the table to see the beaten up Ikki on the floor.

_She's… that strong?!_

"So what were we talking about?" Kairi asked cutely.

"See… before you were kind of… bored and angry looking and now you're all… cute and childish like Akito." Sweat ran down Ringo's face.

"Fuck! Kai-chan."

"Ah! Agito-kun!" Kairi hugged Agito, who returned the hug awkwardly. "It's so good to—"

"What are you doing here?" Agito demanded, awkwardly getting out of Kairi's arms, a light blush on his face.

"Oh." Kairi lowered her head. She lifted it up and her red eye stared into Agito's yellow eye. "Why? You should know…" she answered without any emotion.

"Oh." Was all Agito could say.

Nakayama watched jealously; Agito _never_ used honorifics in _anyone's_ name and he _never _showed such affection to someone before.

_Who is she…?_

Ikki coughed and jumped back up. "So, Kai-chan, you wanna come with us to the hot springs tomorrow?"

The three girls instantly jumped up and shouted, "NO!"

Everyone turned to face them, Kairi's cute face starting to tear.

"What do you mean by 'No'?" Agito asked coldly. He placed his other hand which was not in his pockets on top of Kairi's head which was only a few centimetres below the top of his.

"Uhm… what we meant was that Kairi-chan doesn't _have_ to be asked to come with us because we've already decided that she could come no matter what!" Kururu quickly made up and added a little squeal at the end.

Ringo nodded and hugged Kairi. "You're coming, of course?"

Kairi looked up at Ringo and then at Agito. "Phone?" she asked, voice quivering.

Agito stared at her before grabbing her wrist and dragging her away.

Ikki followed casually with his arms behind his head.

The four remaining (excluding Emily who was currently fussing over KAZU-SAMA~~) girls who were left were seething.

"Who the hell _is_ she?!"

---

"Fuck! Why did you do _that_?!" Agito growled.

"I wanted to see you guys. I was lonely," Kairi replied timidly.

Agito sighed and touched his forehead. "Now we're going to have to call them and tell them you're coming with us, and get yelled at for '_taking_' you without permission, fuck!"

Kairi's lip quivered. "Sorry." She bowed her head, on the verge of tears.

Agito stared at the girl before looking away and patted her head gently. "Don't cry, I'm not mad at you," he said softly.

Kairi nodded but couldn't say anything.

_BAM!_

"OW! FUCK! WHY'D YOU DO THAT FOR, CROW?!"

"You made Kai-chan cry!" Ikki growled. He prepared for another punch.

"No! It's… okay. It's my fault, anyway. I'll go back and tell them I ran away to a friend's place." Kairi turned away sadly.

"What? No way! It takes a lot to escape from that hell hole! Must be very hard with all that tight security." Ikki grabbed Kairi's arm.

"Not really," Kairi muttered emotionlessly.

Agito stared at Kairi and lifted his head to lift Kairi's fringe just like Ikki had. "Are you getting better?" he asked quietly.

Kairi grabbed Agito's wrist and lowered it. "No… They can't find a reason why. They say I'm probably just mentally disordered," she chucked half-heartedly.

"WHAT?! You punched me just for showing Ringo, Kururu and Simca your eyes! Why didn't _he_ get punched?!" Ikki whined.

He got ignored.

"I'm serious." Agito glared.

Kairi was silent. "I saw _her._ I found her a few months ago. She told me why and confirmed that there's nothing wrong with me. It's kind of like your case. But mine are more frequent because I don't have one."

Kairi lifted her hand to touch Agito's eye patch.

"It's all worn out. You need a new one," she noted.

"Che. Fuck it," Agito growled, turning away.

Silence.

"Ne, are you still ignoring me, guys?" Ikki asked with puppy eyes.

_BAM!_

Agito and Kairi lowered their fist.

"Here's my phone." Agito handed Kairi his phone.

"Thanks." Kairi quickly dialled and number and waited for someone to pick up, but all she heard was a long beep.

She was silent and Agito and Ikki stared at her.

And at the tears that started to spill from her eyes.

**TBC…**

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**So many questions unanswered... Who's Kairi? And what's her relationship with Ikki and Agito/Akito? What is she hiding behind those eyes of hers? How far will the Three Girls really go to get their Ikki-kun? And what does Ikki mean by 'It takes a lot to escape that hell hole! Must be very hard with all that tight security'? And what is Kairi trying to recover from? The phone call? What are they even talking about? What am I talking about?**

**Don't go away! I've already written the next two chapters and they're done and about to the posted after this!**

**If you're one of those readers who read very carefully and look for hidden meanings, I'll give you a cookie if you find anything before you read the next chapter! :D**

**!!If you find something offensive in this, please note that this is just purely made up and written for fun and has no intentions of offending anyone. If it still disturbs you, please let the author know so she can work something out!!**

**xKairix**


	2. Chapter 2

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Well? How did you like the previous chapter? Hm? Hm? Find any hidden meanings? Any assumptions? Please do tell! I would like to hear them! ;)

**DISCLAIMER:**_I do not own Air Gear, sadly, otherwise I would've put myself in it and made Agito/Akito fall in love with me :D  
_**WARNING!! Contains swearing and some mild themes. Read at own risk.**

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**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 2: New Friendships and Hardships.

The three girls, Nakayama, Kazu with an Emily clinging from his arm, Onigiri, and Buccha waited and waited for Kairi, Ikki and Agito to come back from wherever they disappeared off to.

The three girls were discussing plans of what they were going to do with the 'Kairi' mission when they will be at the hot springs. They made sure they were at their own tables while the others in the group were at another.

"Geez, Kururu, why did you say that Kairi could come, ne?" Simca mumbled.

"W-well, it's your fault that you said 'No!'" Kururu pointed out.

"Ringo did too!"

"H-heh?! So did you, Kururu," Ringo defended herself.

Simca sighed. "Whatever. Now we're going to have to make a plan… Are you girls thinking what I'm thinking?"

Ringo grinned. "Well, if I wasn't then I wouldn't be teaming up with you."

"Same." Kururu smiled. "Kind of weird, ne?" She laughed. "We're competing for Ikki-kun's love and now suddenly we're working together to prevent him with someone else."

Ringo and Simca nodded.

Simca bent lower with a smirk. "So I was thinking for the mission…"

"Hey, what are those girls up to over there, bending their heads in so close like that? They look like they're up to something," Buccha commented on the three girls who were currently planning well… something, he knew.

"Who cares," Kazu said coolly.

"Hm," Onigiri pondered as a thought came into mind. "You think they're thinking about _all_ having hot sex with Ikki at the same time?"

Silence.

Kazu and Onigiri's face darkened as they twitched.

"That lucky bastard…"

_BAM!_

"Ow! Emily!" Kazu whined. Now that he and Emily was officially a couple, he'd started calling her by the first name.

"One day, the God of Sex will come and teach you why sex is such a good thing!" Onigiri pointed at Emily.

"Whatever," Emily huffed. She turned to her friend. "Ne, Nakayama, you're looking a bit down. What's wrong?"

"Hm?" Nakayama looked up. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking." She sighed.

"About Agito?"

Blush.

"Emily!"

"What? Just stating the obvious!"

"What's the obvious?" Kazu asked, interested as to why Nakayama was so fired up.

"Oh, just how Nakayama li— hmph!!"

"How Nakayama li…?" Kazu raised a brow.

"Oh, she's just sprouting nonsense again," Nakayama assured him, hand still over Emily's mouth.

Kazu shrugged. "Whatever, I guess," he muttered the last part.

Buccha took another sip of coffee and saw that the others had returned. "Ah. They're back."

Everyone turned to look at them.

Ikki was carrying Kairi bridal style – who had her eyes closed – and Agito was walking beside, hands in pockets as usual.

Emily rushed up to them and looked at Kairi. "What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"She fainted, probably from exhaustion, and I had to carry her back since the little brat there is too weak." Ikki half glared, half smirked at the fuming Agito.

"Fuck! I'm not weak! I can carry her!" Agito growled. He was surprised when Kairi was actually handed to him. He took her gently and found that she wasn't that heavy.

The eye patch switched to the right...

"I can carry her! Look, Ikki-kun! I'm strong enough to carry Kai-chan! Wee! ~" Akito smiled and started twirling around, happy with himself.

Emily sighed. "It's good that she's okay."

Ikki scratched his head and sighed. "Eh. Don't worry about it. She's always like this."

"Huh?" Emily spun her head to Ikki. "You mean she's always fainting?! That's not good!"

But Ikki did not reply. He blinked and turned to Emily. "Huh? You said something?" he said before shrugging and walking away.

_Is it too early for them to know?_

"Hahaha! Look Kazu-san! I can carry Kai-chan!" Akito laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kazu grumbled as he looked away – God, the boy was such a kid.

"So did her parents allow her to come to the hot springs with us?" Buccha asked Ikki.

"Huh? Ah…"

"She doesn't have parents."

They turned to the sad looking Agito, staring sadly down at Kairi's face.

"The truth is…"

"But yeah, she's allowed to come with us," Ikki said, waving his hand up and down.

"A question…" Emily said. "If she doesn't have parents, where does she live?"

Agito and Ikki didn't reply.

"It's fucking complicated. You fuckers wouldn't understand," Agito replied.

Everyone was silent, letting the words sink in. No one said a word until-

"FUCK! Akito! You can_not_ come out! And no, you can_not_ carry Kai-chan and twirl around like an idiot, fuck! You'll drop her! Fuck! Get out of my fucking head!" Agito shouted, causing everyone to laugh.

Emily checked her watch and gasped. "Ah! It's so late, I should get home! Bye guys!"

Kazu quickly stood up. "I'll walk you home. See ya guys."

"Bye," everyone chorused together.

"Ah, I should go get going too…" Kururu said.

"I'll come." Ringo stood up.

"Well I guess I should too," Simca sighed.

"Bye bye, Ikki-kun! ~"

"Bye guys!"

"See ya!"

Silence.

"Hey, aren't they like enemies?" Buccha asked.

"Fuck. They can do whatever they want," Agito said, not caring.

Ikki sighed. "Well, Agito, we better go too since everyone is going. Later Buccha."

"Wait!"

Ikki and Agito stopped in their tracks. "What?"

"Is Kairi-san going to be alright with you guys? Does she have a place to stay? Her home?" Buccha asked, worried.

Ikki smiled. "Thanks for your concern, Buccha. Don't worry; Kai-chan will be alright with us."

"Ah. That's good to hear. It's just when you said she didn't have parents, I started to worry. She's a fragile looking thing." Buccha smiled. "Bye."

"Later."

After a few minutes of silence, Agito spoke up. "Hey, Crow. Will she really be alright living with us? It's not really suited for a girl."

Ikki's eyes seemed far away. "Don't worry. She's been through far worse."

"Yeah…" Agito looked down.

Ikki glanced at Agito. "Oi. It's not your fault that you killed her family. It was an order from your ass of an older brother."

"Hn."

The two walked (with Kairi in Agito's arms) to their camp site in silence for the rest of the way.

---

_Ah… Don't tell me I fainted again… What… happened? I was with Kiki-kun and Agito— Ah!_

"Agito-kun, Kiki-kun!" Kairi exclaimed as she sat up. She blinked and looked down.

And no, she was _not_ naked in another man's bed.

She looked at the sleeping bag and her head was filled with millions of questions.

"You're awake."

She looked up and squinted as her eyes weren't yet accustomed to the dark. She waited before seeing a lanky figure by the fire. Her face beamed.

"Agito-kun!"

"Who else."

Kairi started getting out of the sleeping bag when Agito's voice stopped her.

"Don't, you will catch a cold. It's cold tonight." She saw Agito shiver slightly with the wind and she realized that the sleeping bag she was in was indeed Agito's.

"But this is you're sleeping bag and you're cold!"

"No I'm not."

Silence.

"Fuck, what are you doing?!"

"Agito-kun's so nice, letting me use his sleeping bag. The least I can do is help you keep warm."

"Oh."

A light blush appeared on both of their faces as Kairi shuffled closer to Agito who was near the fire, leaning on a fallen log.

Silence.

"You… warm?" Kairi asked awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah…"

Silence.

Kairi yawned, but quickly ducked her head back into the sleeping bag, hoping Agito didn't see.

Unfortunately, he did.

Agito glanced over at her and looked away again. "Go to sleep. You're tired."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"N—Fuck this!" Agito fumed.

Kairi giggled.

Agito glanced at her and he couldn't help himself but let a chuckle escape his lips. "Heh. The mighty Fang King got tricked by a mere human girl."

Kairi pouted. She frowned and turned away.

Agito sighed and rolled his eyes. "Geez… I was just joking."

Kairi turned to him and poked her tongue at him. "Bleh! Baka, baka!"

Agito twitched before shaking his head. "You little fucker," he muttered under his breath.

"You're just too naïve—"

"Like fuck I am!"

"—and you get fooled so easily."

"No I don't—"

"You're in denial, Agito-kun." Kairi smiled innocently.

Agito scowled and bopped her lightly on the head before turning away. He closed his eyes…

And felt shuffling beside him and heard her soft breathing.

His eye twitched. Oh god, oh god, oh GOD! Not now!

_Fuck! Stupid hormones!_

_Agito! Stop thinking dirty thoughts about Kai-chan! _Akito yelled in his mind.

_I bet you would love that… _Agito retorted back to Akito in his head.

_You would love it just as much as me!_

…

_Hah! You do, you do! _Akito chirped in his head, happy at catching Agito out.

_Fuck! Go away!_

_Aw! Agito is such a big meanie—_

Agito blocked the annoying 'light side' of him and decided to try and take his mind elsewhere.

_Uh, let's see… Killing people?_

A scene of him killing Kairi's parents flashed in his mind. Then he saw the girl lying next to him.

_Fuck! Okay, um… ATs._

He saw a scene in his mind of him and a girl practicing on their ATs together, the same girl as the one lying beside him.

_How about… 'Fuck'?_

He saw a scene of him and a girl yelling 'Fuck!' while walking down the streets. A picture of Kairi flashed in his mind.

Now Agito was desperate.

… _Pink fluffy bunnies…?! _he whimpered.

Oh Lord, help him.

"Agito-kun?" he heard a soft whisper behind him.

He stiffened. Now the girl who he was trying to get his mind off is _calling _his name, heck dammit!

"What?" he asked, trying to have no emotion in his voice.

"… You okay?"

_To answer your question truthfully, no, I'm not okay because you're a girl, lying next to me, and I can feel your every movement and hear your breath and my fucking hormones are acting up!_

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Aren't you cold?"

Agito felt shuffling again and found himself staring into a clear blue orb. His face heated up.

"F—No." He stopped himself just in time from yelling out his favourite word.

"You sure?" The clear blue orb scanned his own yellow orb.

"Yeah. Now go to sleep. I'm trying to go to sleep."

"Oh…"

A pause.

"Sorry, Agito-kun," he heard her say softly.

He turned around to see if she said what he heard her say but he saw she was already fast asleep. "Huh. 'Night, Kai-chan."

And only then did his hormones not bother him anymore as he smiled in his sleep.

---

"Mmmmm! Agito-kuuuuun! Wake up! I loooooove you!"

Agito's eyes snapped open, seeing a smirking Ikki with a _very_ smug look on his face. His eyes narrowed as Ikki continued in a false falsetto voice.

"Ahhhh! You're awake, Agito-kuuuuuun! Come kiss me! I love you! I—"

"Shut the fuck up!" Agito growled, kicking the boy right in the face with his foot. He slapped his right hand onto his face in disgust and wondered why he couldn't feel his left arm. He looked to his left and his face was instantly set ablaze.

There was Kairi, lying in his arms (well, left arm) _still _sleeping without a care in the world or knowing that she was sleeping in his left arm!

_And her face is so close too…_

_Ah! You're awake Agito!_

_Fuck…_

_So how was it? Sleeping with Kai-chan. You didn't take her virgi—?!_

And so Akito carried on with his teasing but you're not going to know what he said because Agito threatened the author to take it out… but you never heard that.

"Ow… Gee, brat, don't need to kick so hard." Ikki frowned as he turned to get back to cooking breakfast.

Agito glared at Ikki's back before sighing and carefully sliding his arm from underneath Kairi and placing her gently onto the ground in a comfortable sleeping position.

He stood up and stretched. He picked up his eye patch from the ground and placed it on his left eye. He proceeded to help Ikki with breakfast, much to his dismay because—

"STOP FUCKING LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!" Agito yelled.

"Tch. You think I would _look_ at you like _that_?" Ikki snorted.

"NOT LIKE THAT!! FUCK YOU!! You keep looking at me with this smug grin on your face," Agito scowled.

"You know why…" Ikki hinted.

"Fuck this! You make breakfast yourself!"

"You want a plate with burnt food?"

"…"

"I thought so." Grin.

"Fuck you to fucking hell and what ever is fucking beyond that fucking place…"

"Ah. You guys are done making breakfast? Sorry, I didn't help."

The boys looked up at a dishevelled Kairi who was rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She yawned. And they realized that it was her red eye that was open.

"That was one of the best sleeps I have ever had," she commented plainly. "Usually only ever get a few hours of sleep."

Ikki snuck a sky glance at Agito who replied with a kick in the face.

Kairi mid stopped her yawning and looked at the boys.

"That… hurt… you… BASTARD!!"

"FUCK!!"

Kairi watched the boys run around like idiots and she saved the breakfast before they spoiled it.

"Well, I'm going to get dressed," Kairi said as she stood up.

"Wait, but you don't have your spare clothes with you," Ikki said, stopping in his chase after Agito who sighed in relief.

"I left them in a bag in one of the lockers in the train station." (**I'm pretty sure that they have lockers at the train station in Japan since I saw it once in a movie… Uh…**)

"You can borrow some of my clothes that're in the bag over there, since Crow is too fucking _fat_," Agito suggested.

"BASTARD!!"

"FUCK!!"

Kairi sighed and opened the bag and blushed as she started to rummage through it and see bits of clothing she didn't really need to see. In the end she picked out Agito's orange hoodie with the hooks attached and a pair of pants.

She walked into the tent and zipped it up before commencing to undress and dress again (though in Agito's clothes).

"Fuck you crow! You don't know anything you're say—"

Kairi stared at Agito who had started to come into the tent without knowing she was in there.

Their faces flamed.

"FUCK!!" Agito hastily zipped the tent back up and walked away stiffly like a soldier trying to erase what he saw a few seconds ago.

Soft pale skin and—

_Argh!_

_Agito, you perve! You knew she was in there getting dressed, didn't you?_

_Fuck no! Why would I… peek at her when… she's half way getting… dressed in my… clothes…?!_

_We're switching. ~_

_What? I need to a-apologize to her, fuck, wait—!_

"Ooh, you sly thing Agito, you knew she was in there and—" Ikki stopped midway when he realized it was Akito he was talking to. "EH?! So it was _you_ who took a peek!"

"No." Akito smiled innocently. "We switched because Agito isn't very good at saying sorry."

And Kairi stepped out at that exact moment.

"Ah! Good morning, Kai-chan! ~" Akito floated towards her as she stepped out, face still slightly hot and blue eye open. "And sorry about before, Agito is a baaad boy."

The last part didn't help Kairi's face one bit.

"Let's eat breakfast! I'm hungry!" Ikki whined.

"Okay!" Akito cheered.

After breakfast, the three headed towards the train station to collect Kairi's stuff.

"Woah, quite a lot you have there just for visiting us, Kai-chan," Akito commented.

"It's all my stuff."

"Eh? That's all you have?" Akito's eyes widened. "If the other girls saw this, they would need to take you shopping. But if you want, I can go with you!" he chirped.

"We're going to the hot springs resort today, idiot," Ikki muttered.

"Aw. But it's the thought that counts!"

Ikki gave up – you could _never_ crush the boy's spirits…

"So, where are we meeting the others?"

"Ahh, here." Ikki said as he looked at the train station's clock on the wall. "They should be here soon."

"Ikki-kun! ~"

"Ah, it's Simca-san," Kairi noted. She looked behind Simca and saw Ringo and Kururu behind her. "And Ringo-san and Kururu-san."

"I'm sure you can add '—chan' instead of '—san', Kai-chan," Akito suggested.

"Um… I don't want to offend them, because they don't seem to like me…"

"Heh? Really? Maybe it's because they see you're so close to Ikki-kun!" Akito smiled and danced around Kairi who smiled ruefully.

"Yeah, maybe..."

Soon the others arrived, but only Nakayama as left.

"Where is she? It isn't like her to be late," Buccha noted.

"Huh. Don't care, as long as she hurries up and gets here," Kazu said, folding his arms behind his head.

"Kazu-sama!" Emily exclaimed.

"I told you that you can stop calling me 'Kazu-sama'," Kazu grumbled.

"What was that?!" Emily was _very_ sensitive with the 'Kazu-sama' subject.

"Nothing," Kazu mumbled.

"Miniskirt sighted at 1 O'clock! Oh! Another at—" Onigiri stared at Kururu and Ringo with droll coming out of his mouth. "And minishorts—" he looked at Simca.

He blinked. "Which reminds me, why is Kairi-san wearing Akito's clothes?"

"Ah, it's because—"

"Because _what_?" Nakayama demanded coldly.

"Ah, you're here!" Emily cheered but was ignored.

"Why is Kairi-san wearing Akito's clothes?" she demanded again.

"Ah…"

The eye patch swapped sides...

"It's because she didn't have new clothes she could wear when we came to pick up her stuff," Agito interrupted. "If you have a problem, talk to my lawyer. Fuck. Come on, we're going to be late for the train." He picked up Kairi's bag and started to walk to the train platform.

"W-wait, Agito-kun!" Kairi hurried after the boy who took her stuff.

"So where's all her stuff?" Nakayama asked Ikki.

Ikki pointed at the two medium sized bags Agito was carrying. "That's all she's got. She lost everything else in a fire and she has no money to buy anymore. We insist on buying new things for her but she's so stubborn. I was hoping you girls could take her shopping one day." Ikki faced all the girls.

"Yeah! We would love that!" Emily squealed.

"Great." Ikki smirked and walked towards the train platform.

The train arrived not too long after they arrived at the platform and they started to put their bags and suitcases in the carriage where the platform attendant would put them in when—

"No."

"Please, miss, it would make it much convenient for you and our—"

"No," Kairi insisted once again.

The platform attendant started to hassle Kairi and when Agito was about to save her, Emily beat him to it.

"Excuse me, but one of those is mine. Would it be too much of a hassle for us to bring them onto the train?" she pouted.

"U-um… n-no, mam, but—"

"Okay, thank you!" She quickly dragged Kairi away.

"Why did you do that?" Kairi asked when they were at a safe distance.

"Because I like you, you seem like a very nice girl. I want to get to know you and be your best friend." Emily winked.

"Really?" Kairi smiled.

"Yeah. Come on! We have to get the best seats!"

---

"I want to sit with Kairi-chan."

Everyone's mouths dropped as the six words came out of Emily's mouth.

"I-I thought you wanted to sit with me," Kazu choked on his spit, voicing everyone's thoughts.

Emily smiled innocently. "No. I want to sit next to Kairi-chan."

She said it again…

Letting everyone's mouths drop further.

Kairi smiled. "I wouldn't mind." She glanced at Agito who shrugged.

"And I want to sit next to Ikki-kun! ~" Simca hugged her lover

.

"No, I will!" Kururu protested with a blush on her face.

Ringo joined in.

"But I wanted to sit with Kazu and Kairi," Ikki whined.

"The train has two seats for three opposite each other. Six of you can sit together in one compartment. Everyone pick two people you want to sit with," Buccha assured everyone.

Ikki picked Kai-chan and Kazu.

Kazu picked Emily and Ikki.

Onigiri just asked for any of the girls.

Buccha didn't mind.

Agito picked Kai-chan and anyone else.

Kairi picked Emily and Kairi.

Emily picked Kazu-sama and Kairi.

Nakayama picked Agito and Emily.

Ringo picked Ikki and anyone else.

Simca picked Ikki and Kazu-sama ("Don't call him that!" Emily'd yelled).

Kururu picked Ikki and anyone else.

Buccha got out his phone and did some random calculations. "Hm, because Noyamano, Sumeragi and Simca all picked Ikki, they can all sit together. Onigiri and I can sit with them since he wanted to sit with the girls and I don't mind. The rest can sit in another compartment."

"No, I won't have that," Simca stated.

"We know how you want to sit with Ikki but—"

"Ringo, Kururu and I will have our own compartment to ourselves," she added, which shocked everyone – even more when the other two girls agreed.

"Okay," everyone chorused.

So the three girls went to their own compartment to talk about their mission which no one knew about while the others settled in different compartments. Onigiri was complaining how he wanted to sit with the girls until a group of ladies came and sat with him and Buccha. He was content for the whole ride.

In another, Ikki, Kairi and Agito sat on one side and Kazu, Emily and Nakayama sat on the other. Nakayama wasn't happy with the seating because she wasn't next to Agito but if in front of him was the best she was going to get then she would stick with it.

Ikki and Kazu chatted about stupid boy stuff; Emily and Nakayama (while also trying to include Kairi in who politely decline when she didn't feel like talking anymore) were talking about their stuff which left Kairi and a silent Agito.

Agito was staring out the window when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to Kairi.

"I'm going to faint…" she whispered before dropping her head onto his shoulder.

Agito sighed and took off his jacket to drape over her.

"Has she fainted again?" Emily asked.

"Yeah." Agito went silent and back to watching the scenery outside the window, hearing Kairi barely whisper something.

"Agito-kun…"

**TBC…**

* * *

**Aww! Akito is such a bad little boy, teasing Agito like that.**

**Gasp! Kairi's parents are dead! But did they know because of the mysterious unanswered phone call from the previous chapter? Who knows. Well I do, but I'm not telling you. ;P**

**If you have any assumptions, hang onto them or please do tell me them because next chapter, most of your questions will be answered!**

**xKairix**


	3. Chapter 3

**Most of your questions shall be answered in this chapter! But I'm deliberately leaving things out.. Hehe, how evil I am. Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than the others. This chapter will send a twist in the story. :)**

**DISCLAIMER: **_I do not own Air Gear nor will I ever ;(_  
**CONTAINS SWEARING AND SOME MILD THEMES.**

* * *

**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 3: The Ride towards Dark Secrets… And Their Destination.

Kairi groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes widened as her throat felt dry and on fire -- her thirst was back!

"Guh..."

She tried to block out the scents of everyone and held her breath. She tried to not focus on everyone's heart beats that she could hear loudly and pounding in her head.

Agito felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to face Kairi.

"Ah. You're awake, Kai-chan--" He stopped suddenly when he saw Kairi's red eye glowing. "You need to go to the toilet?" he asked coolly.

Kairi nodded.

"I'll give it to you then and help put it on." Agito stood up and pulled Kairi along with him.

Kazu heard this and got a perverted thought in his head. "Wait, Agito!"

Agito just waved his hand back at him.

Kazu twitched. "What does he mean '_I'll help you put it on'_?" he asked Ikki. "They aren't..."

Ikki stared out the window. "Exactly what he meant, he'll help Kai-chan put something on."

"But what?" Kazu asked -- a thong, bra, and other lingerie items came into mind.

Ikki punched Kazu with a serious look on his face. "Don't you ever think about Kai-chan like that," he growled, eye twitching.

Then he was silent, fishing in his thoughts.

"There's something about Kairi-chan you're not telling us..." Emily muttered quietly.

Ikki sighed. "Yeah."

A pause.

"I'm just wondering if I can tell you..."

Nakayama sat up straight.

_Maybe _then_ I can find out why Agito's so close to her!_

"Tell us," she firmly stated.

"Nakayama..." Emily whispered.

"If she's going to be with us then there's no point of her hiding her secrets since we all know everyone else's."

Ikki paused. "Alright..." he said hesitantly. "But if Kai-chan asks, you pulled it out of me," he said seriously.

"Huh?" Kazu gave him a strange look.

"If she asks, tell her you forced me to tell you guys, you asked me," Ikki pleaded, looking back towards Kairi's direction.

"Okay."

"Ask me," Ikki pleaded again.

"Oh. Please tell us about Kairi-chan, Ikki," Emily asked.

Ikki gave a sigh of relief. "Now she won't kill me that badly," he muttered under his breath.

"You know my father, Uncle Minami?"

The others nodded.

"Well, along with the Gravity Children and the [BRAINCHARGER], he made another experiment, though it was never announced. It was called Heartless, a creature without a heart.

"It was really powerful, and fast, but the thing was..." Ikki looked up seriously. "It thirsts for blood and hearts of people.

"My father couldn't control it, and he couldn't bring himself to destroy something he made, so he had no choice; he had to put it into a new born's body. Guess who," Ikki muttered grimly.

"Kairi-chan..." Emily whispered then gasped when Ikki nodded.

"Haneba Kairi. She had an older brother called Kain, and he was awesome. He was another of my best friends but of course, we were really young at the time so we didn't know anything -- Heartless was created a less than a year Kai-chan was born and Kain's a year older. So they put it into Kairi, hoping she would be able to handle it."

"Could she?" Emily whispered.

Ikki was silent. "Yeah, for awhile.

"My father gave special drugs in her food to her everyday to keep it at bay and to prevent it's true nature showing. We really hated the thing -- but Kai-chan was different.

"When she could finally speak and understand us, she heard us call it an 'it' and a 'thing'." Ikki chuckled. "She's a good kid.

"She yelled at us, saying it was a 'she' and she's actually really nice; she's been talking to her in her mind. You can imagine our shocked faces."

Everyone nodded.

"Then my father decided that the Heartless could come out often and take control of Kai-chan's body if she behaves. Of course, we found out that when her eye is blue then its our normal Kai-chan, and red, the Heartless. The red eye is originally from the Heartless's body and so when it got put into Kai-chan, it modified her body."

"I see." Emily nodded.

"But what does this have to do with Agito-kun?" Nakayama demanded.

Ikki smiled grimly. "It's depressing but... I guess I have no choice.

"We thought that Kai-chan would be okay so we were happy. Kain, Kai-chan and I would always go out to play. One day we went out to play and when we arrived back at the Haneba's household, it was on fire."

Emily and Kazu both gasped.

"W-who... did it?" Nakayama asked.

"It was WIND, and... Agito."

They all gasped.

"Apparently, Kai-chan's parents used to be in a rebel AT gang and would cause lots of trouble, but they are good people, they never had intentions of hurting people. They taught me all sorts of cool pranks.

"Kaito was in charge of WIND and had ordered Agito to destroy the whole household. He was chasing after us and Kain..."

Everyone went silent.

"I made a promise to him, that I would protect Kai-chan with my life before he died...

"Kai-chan broke from my grasp and went back to her brother. I chased after her -- boy, she is fast! -- and I found her standing in front of someone from WIND. I don't know who it was, but Agito said it was him."

"Did he try to kill her?" Nakayama asked, interested.

"No. He let her go, and so easily too... And you know how the little brat was like before he met us."

"Oh..."

"I don't know, but Agito said that he would visit Kai-chan so often when he was allowed too, but Kaito always came as well because he saw potential in her."

"What potential?" Kazu asked.

Ikki looked up. "She has the potential to be the Sky King."

"..."

"So when Kai-chan got adopted by her grandparents, they often visited her and teach her AT, though I never saw them. Agito said that they would always practice together under Kaito's harsh training, but Kai-chan's body is very weak so she couldn't go as long."

"Wait, didn't you say the Heartless was very powerful?" Kazu cut in.

"Yeah, but I said it never had a heart.

"It's a different case than Agito and Akito; there are two living things in Kai-chan's body but there's only one heart to share in the body. Akito and Agito are the same person originally from the same body and soul so they're okay, they don't need anything else to support them."

"Is that why Kairi-chan always faint?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, I guess.

"But as weeks passed, Kai-chan became more aggressive and started to thirst for blood. Because her grandparents had no clue of the Heartless inside of her, they thought she was mentally ill. My father was already dead so he couldn't explain anything to them. They transferred her to a mental hospital.

"There really wasn't anything wrong with Kai-chan," Ikki whimpered. "They were all just so narrow minded to realize that.

"But Agito, Kaito and I would still visit her often. Mentally ill kids who used to use ATs often tried to escape but WIND would always come and kill them off. That was when Agito would see Kai-chan.

"But we haven't been able to see her for so long because of the Gram Scale tournament and Sky Regalia business.

"Kai-chan's Heartless come out more frequent than Agito and Akito changing because there's nothing to keep it at bay. We talked about it and yesterday, Agito thought of a solution.

"Kai-chan said that the Heartless didn't really want to thirst for blood and hearts but it was her nature. She said that if there was something to show her when she can't come out, psychologically, she would understand and not come out."

"What's Agito's solution?" Emily asked, hope sparkling in her eyes.

Ikki looked at all of them carefully. "She wears an eye patch."

"No!"

They turned to Nakayama.

"That's Agito-kun's and Akito-kun's signature! She can't do that!" she cried in defence for her lover.

"There's no other way." Ikki glared at Nakayama darkly. "Unless you want your blood drained out of you and your heart eaten."

"... N-no..."

"So, right now Agito is putting on an eye patch for Kairi-san?" Kazu asked.

"Yeah."

"They sure are taking their time..."

"That's because..."

"Because?"

"Heartless thirsts for blood and it's in her nature to. Right now, it's drinking the little brat's blood so she won't kill everyone on the train, regardless how close we are to her."

Everyone was silent.

Nakayama stood up. "We must stop her!"

"You go there, and not only will you get killed by Kai-chan, but the little brat as well," Ikki said darkly. "I nearly got killed once. Still have a few scars."

Nakayama stopped and turned the other way. "I'm going to the toilets then."

And she walked the opposite direction from Agito and Kairi.

She stormed her way there.

_How dare she! Who does she think she is?! The little brat showing up from nowhere and--_

"--taking Ikki-kun from us, she will pay!"

She stopped and saw Ringo, Kururu and Simca stare at her nervously as if they got caught.

"H-hi," Kururu said meekly.

"We weren't talking about Kairi-chan and-- OW!" Simca glared at Ringo who had kicked her.

"Do you hate Kairi-san?" Nakayama asked.

"... Yes."

"Are you planning something?"

"... Yes."

Nakayama took a deep breath.

The three girls looked nervous then surprised.

"Onegai! Let me join!" said the bowing Nakayama.

"... Uh."

The three girls looked at each other and grinned.

"O-kay!"

Nakayama walked back to where she was sitting before and grabbed her jacket. "I'm going to with the others," she informed quickly.

"Heh?! Really?" Emily grabbed her arm.

"Yeah." Nakayama ripped her arm away.

"Hm..." Ikki, Emily and Kazu thought why Nakayama would leave her dear Agito-kun for some girls...

Kazu and Ikki looked shocked.

"Are they..." Kazu started.

"... planning on having..." Ikki added.

They yelled together: "SEXUAL INTERCOURSES WITH EACH OTHER?!"

_BAM!_

Emily lowered her fist. "Ah!" she chirped as she saw Agito and Kairi return. "You're back! The eye patch looks good on you, Kairi-chan!"

Kairi blushed. "Thanks," she muttered. "Where's Nakayama-san?"

"Probably toilet," Agito muttered as he flopped onto the seat tiredly.

"Woah, you okay man? You look like you just had sex--"

_BAM!_

"Kazu-sama..." Emily lowered her fist.

He couldn't reply.

Agito closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep, everything looked pitch black.

"You want to swap with Akito?" he heard _her_ say in the darkness.

"Whatever," he muttered, before he was unaware of anything that was happening around him.

"Agito is a lazy bum!" Akito chirped.

"He's just tired," Kairi defended.

"Still, he's a lazy bum! Giving you all that blood shouldn't have-- Ah... sorry Kai-chan..."

Ikki looked at Kazu, trying to hint something, who didn't get it. He kicked him.

"OW!! Yeah, don't worry about it. We asked Ikki to tell us," he said, trying to keep his cool -- _That bastard Ikki!_

"Oh. Does Nakayama-san know?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah," Ikki replied.

"Okay."

"Ahh... ~" Akito muttered. "I feel dizzy..."

"It's because I took all that blood from you," Kairi pointed out, feeling slightly awkward saying that in front of her new friends. "You should've told me when to stop."

"Don' wowi, I'll be alriiiight. ~" Akito swayed. "Ah! I'm seeing... lights... ~"

_Plonk!_

"He fainted..."

Kairi sighed and draped his jacket given to her on him. She yawned.

"You should go to sleep," Ikki commented.

"I'm sure you must be tired." Emily smiled.

"Hn..."

Ikki, Emily, and Kazu watched the two smaller ones sleep.

"But shouldn't Akito be drained anyway from all that blood being drained from _his_ and _Agito's_ body?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, but Agito's always the one who controls the body when Kai-chan drinks their blood. It's less stressful for Agito to rest when they swap," Ikki explained.

"Ahh..."

Silence.

"Look at them, look at them!" Emily squealed quietly. "They're so cute! Why can't we be like that, Kazu-sama?" She pouted.

"Uh... we can... if you want..." Kazu mumbled as a blush started to creep up his face.

"Okay!" Emily smiled and leaned on Kazu's shoulder. "So nice..."

Kazu sighed and faced Ikki. "'Night man."

Ikki was left alone as he stared at everyone. His face turned sad.

"I wish I had someone like that to hold..."

"Ikki?"

He looked up to meet violet-blue orbs staring at him.

"Ringo?" He blinked. "I thought you were with the others."

"Yeah, got boring." Ringo waved her hand. She looked at everyone sleeping. "They're really all cute, hey?" She smiled with a gently look on her face.

Ikki blushed as he watched her. "Y-yeah..."

_What's with me?_

"Kairi looks good with the eye patch. Really nice of Agito," Ringo commented.

"You know about it?" Ikki asked, surprised.

"Yeah, Nakayama told us. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." She smiled.

"... Yeah, that's good."

Silence.

Ikki coughed. "So, Ringo--"

"Ringo! ~ What are you doing, flirting with Ikki-kun?" Simca interrupted with a pout on her face. "Hi Ikki-kun! ~ Come on, Ringo!" And she pushed Ringo away, back to their compartment.

Ikki sighed and slapped himself for what he was about to say to Ringo. He looked back at everyone else. "I should get some sleep as well." He rested on Kairi's head which was on Akito's head. "Huh. 'Night, minna..."

---

"OI CROW!! GET YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF KAI-CHAN!!"

(**Could've left it at there but no, too short.**)

"Urgh..." Ikki groaned as a loud voice woke him from his slumber.

"YOU'RE FUCKING DROOLING ALL OVER HER!! FUCK!! KAI-CHAN, KNOCK HIS HEAD OFF!!" the loud voice came again.

"B-but... I can't do that..." a sweeter voice whimpered sounding _very_ close.

"K-Kai-chan...?" Ikki muttered. "One more minute, please..."

"LIKE FUCKING HELL!!"

"Ikki-kun~" a sexy voice came. He felt something rub against him—_BOOBIES?!_

"Wake up, Ikki-kun! ~" the voice came again.

"Kai-chan?" he murmured. "Since when did you grow such big boobies? Thought you were flat-chested..."

Silence.

"ITAIII!!!" Ikki cried from his position, nose bleeding and broken.

Kairi retracted her fist. "That was for insulting me and Simca-san," she growled.

Simca squealed and hugged Kairi. "She's so strong and fast! I didn't see you hit him! I was about to hit Ikki-kun, of course, but you beat me to it!"

"Hn." Kairi stood up. "Let's get out before the police come – it would be too troublesome."

---

"Good thing that it was the last station," Kazu sighed. "Or we would've missed it."

"Because of Ikki." Kairi glared at Ikki from her seat by the window.

"Aw, love you too Kai-chan!" Ikki patted her head from his seat by the opposite window.

"Get your fucking hands away from us, Crow!" Agito growled who was seated in the middle.

Ikki's face turned into one of disgust. "I'm not gay!"

"Or so you say," Kairi muttered. "Words are just words, but _actions _are another story."

"Oh yeah?!" Ikki roared. "I'll make a bet with you! By the end of this journey, I'll prove to you that I'm. Not. Gay!"

"What are you going to bet on?" Kazu asked from behind them. "Something good."

Ikki's eyes twinkled. "The loser must… STRIP IN FRONT OF EVERYONE MEANING US, KISS SANO YASUYOSHI (they made this without his permission, of course), GO UP TO KAITO AND TELL HIM HE'S SEXY AND THEY WANT TO HAVE HOT SEX WITH HIM, AND HANG THEIR UNDERWEAR IN FRONT OF THE OPPOSEXES' BATHROOM!!"

"Whatever," Kairi muttered. She held out her hand. "It's a deal."

Ikki grinned maniacally and thrusted his hand forward. "I'm going to win."

"In your dreams involving sleeping with Sano Yasuyoshi."

They shook hands.

Then Ikki realized what Kairi had said.

The taxi driver swore to _never_ drive a bunch of teenagers _ever again_.

**TBC...**

* * *

**Most of your questions answered? Yes? No? Good, because there are much more answers to come.**

**Ooh! The bet between Kairi and Ikki! Wonder who will win. I know, might or might not dissapoint you though.**

**Nakayama (I **_**always**_** forget her name!) has joined the Three Girls and their mission. Now it's the Four Girls... but they are still the Three Girls because Nakayama's intentions are a little different than theirs and she has plans of her own- Woops! You didn't hear that...**

**Stay turned for the next chapter which hopefully will come out soon because I'm currently obsessed with this story ;P**

**xKairix**


	4. Chapter 4

**I've renamed it to Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War.**

**So I had to change the whole thing 'cos of the title .**

**Ah well.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 4: Off track, back track, what track? That track!?!

Our gang of merry men and women plus perverted pig ("Hey!") have finally arrived at their destination after much struggle and hardships-

"Zzzzzzzzzz..."

...

_Anyway_.

They had arrived to their destination; the HOT SPRINGS OF YOUTH!!

...

That sounds like Gai and Lee from Naruto, doesn't it?

Anyway, no more narrating from me.

"Wah!!" Emily gasped as she saw a sign saying 'THE HOT SPRINGS OF YOUTH WELCOMES YOU!!' "Kazu-sama, Kazu-sama! Look! We're here!" She nudged the sleeping blonde beside her.

"Urgh," he groaned and slightly lifted up his white beanie. He half-heartedly gazed at his surroundings before pulling his beanie back down. "Wake me up when we get there..."

"We are there! I mean here! Oh, whatever!" Emily scowled at the lazy boy but couldn't resist smiling at his laziness. She took in a deep breath. "WAKE UP KAZU-SAMA!!"

"GARH!! OKAY, I'M UP!!" Kazu jumped up from his sleep and was facing an innocent looking Emily with an angelic but smug smile on her face.

Twitch.

"You..."

"Ah! You're up, Kazu-sama! I wonder what made you decide to wake up." Emily smiled.

"No one in particular," he muttered, annoyed.

"What did you say?..."

"Erk! Nothing!" Kazu reassured the girl sending out dark auras, who was now radiating a bright and cheery aura.

"Okay, Kazu-sama!"

_Geez, that girl..._

Twitch.

"Hm... Hey, Kazu, I wonder if there are any hot naked girls there already." Onigiri asked.

Kazu paused and thought about it, a thought bubble appearing above his and Onigiri's head.

"Fufufu..."

_BAM!_

"Kazu-sama..."

"Ah! Gomen, Emily!" Kazu whined.

Onigiri leaned towards Kazu, whispering: "We'll talk about this later when your girlfriend isn't around."

"Yeah," Kazu sobbed. Wasn't his fault that he was still a teenaged boy with raging hormones, right?

_I need a lawyer... And a hot one!_

_BAM!_

"OW! What was that for?!" Kazu yelled at Emily.

Emily huffed and turned away. "You were thinking about some other girl."

"H...HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"

"You had that perverted look on your face."

Kazu blinked. "Huh? Really? What does it look like?"

Emily frowned. "It's when your eyes go cross eyed and your mouth hangs open seven millimetres like a goldfish. Your eyebrows rise by two millimetres but your left eyebrow is usually higher by half a millimetre."

"Really?!" Kazu tried to make his 'perverted face', only to end up looking like a really, really, really, _really_ gullible idiot.

"Hey, Kazu, I think she just fooled you," Onigiri muttered.

"Did not." Emily turned away to face the window. "And it's true," she added.

Kazu sighed and promised himself that he would make it up to her later on today.

_Hm... How? Oh! Got it! But I need to ask Onigiri for it..._

And from that last part, you can kind of tell that it won't work...

Onigiri decided not to meddle with the couple's fight and went back to munching his chips he had bought at the train station when he saw the lady working there, only to be served by an old man.

Buccha and the Three Girls were behind them, doing who knows what; the Three Girls probably making another plan.

Nakayama got a text from the front. She smirked and started texting back furiously.

A noise from the back of the taxi van.

"Ohmigod! It's from that super hot guy, Kururu! Quick, say something back!" Simca squealed.

"Hey, let me look," Ringo muttered.

Ikki suddenly felt sick in the stomach when he heard that, not knowing why. He shrugged and decided it was those really spicy chips he had on the train.

_Woops..._

"Hey Crow, how much longer?" Agito asked, irritated that the car trip was so long but he never saw the sign so he didn't know that they were nearly there.

"How the hell should I know?" Ikki bit back. "Ask the driver over there."

Agito turned to the driver and saw that he was on the verge of turning insane.

_Aw, come on Agito! Don't do this to the poor man!_

Agito just grunted to Akito and fell silent.

"Hey, Agito-kun, we passed a sign saying that we're in their territory now so it shouldn't be any longer," Nakayama said, turning back to reassure him from the passenger seat.

He nodded but said nothing.

Kairi frowned but said nothing as she turned to look out the window. A flash of bright red - or was it pink? - caught her attention and she nudged Agito.

"Hey, what's that?"

Agito was about to reply but before he got to say anything, Onigiri answered her question.

"A THONG!! THE GOD OF LINGERIE HAS BLESSED UP WITH A THONG!! I SMELL THE FRANGANCE OF A GODDESS THAT WALKS THIS LAND THAT AWES IN HER BEAUTY!! QUICK, STOP THE CAR!! WE MUST GET IT!!"

And as Onigiri desperately tried to get out of the car while being held back, the taxi driver couldn't take it anymore and the gang found themselves outside catching only a few jumbled sentences like 'I can't take it', '... close so you can walk', 'don't pay' and a desperate 'just go away! _PLEASE!!_'

"Do we really have to walk?" Kairi asked the others with a pout.

Agito wasn't any happier. "That bastard... It's-"

"NOT A THONG!!" Onigiri's devastated cries shook the forest.

"Exactly," Agito muttered. "It was just a piece of cloth."

"WHAT?!" Emily and Nakayama screeched.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned… No one is angrier than a woman who has been rejected in love.

The love of riding in the taxi and not walking, that is.

---

"Urgh, that hurts!"

"YOUR FAULT FOR MAKING US WALK!!" Emily and Nakayama yelled back at Onigiri, knocking him unconscious again.

The gang were currently walking on the side of the road to the 'Hot Spring of YOUTH!!' all because the taxi driver had enough mainly due to Onigiri and the 'nonexistent red thong' case.

Buccha sighed and continued carrying the boy. Pig. Pervert. Whatever you want to call him.

"The little fucker..."

Yeah, just follow Agito's example. Smiles.

"It's... not _that_ bad, Agito-kun," Kairi muttered but still irritated.

He grunted. "Is for everyone else," he pointed out.

Kairi looked at everyone who had lots of bags/suitcases to carry up hill. She looked down. "Sorry..."

He patted her head. "Their fault for bringing such shit."

Kairi smiled a little before she beamed. "Want me to help carry your stuff?"

"Idiot."

She felt something hit her head.

"It's the guy that asks that."

She laughed. "But you're already carrying more than me and one of my bags."

"But they're all really light."

"Oh."

_BAM!_

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!! YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO LET HER DOWN LIKE THAT!!"

"GET YOUR FUCKING DIRTY HAND OFF MY FUCKING HEAD, YOU FUCKING CROW!!"

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT?! I'M. NOT. GAY!!"

Kairi laughed at their little fight. She shook her head.

"Guys..." Nakayama puffed from behind them.

"Can we rest?" Kazu whined.

"Okay."

They all put their stuff down and took a break, drinking and eating the little food they had with them. When they were about to go, Kairi gasped.

"What is it?" Agito asked, turning around.

"My bag, it's all dirty and ripped now..." Kairi whispered.

Agito's eye widened.

_Fuck! That was the bag that __I__ was carrying!_

"Kai-chan! I didn't-"

"It's okay. It must've gotten so old so... it just broke." Kairi smiled.

Ikki glanced back at Kairi and turned away with an 'I don't care' look he usually wore. "Here, put the stuff in my bag. You guys go on ahead."

"No way!" Simca whined. "We want to help Kairi-chan as well!"

"Simca, I'm sure your five suitcases have no room..." Ringo pointed out.

"Oh. True. But I could throw some away here, but I don't know what to throw out! ~"

Everyone sweat dropped.

"Don't worry, just go," Ikki commanded everyone. He started to help Kairi move her stuff into one of his bags.

Agito stood there watching with a serious face.

Kairi looked up and smiled. "Don't worry, Agito-kun. We'll catch up, I promise."

The eye patch swapped.

"Okay, Kai-chan! ~" Akito smiled as he floated away, trying to get Kazu's attention ("Hey, hey, Kazu-saaan! I have a joke~!" "Oi! Go away!").

Ikki looked up at Kairi, stopping mid-way in his work. "You lied."

Kairi said nothing.

"It was new."

"..."

"I gave you that bag, and it was the only one I gave you, so I should know."

"..."

"Kairi. Answer me."

"We have to move everything quickly so we can catch up."

"Why did you lie to the little brat?"

"Ikki-kun, help me. We have to catch up."

"Stop avoiding my questions! Why did you lie to him?"

"I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT HIM!!"

The yell was very loud and the others ahead turned around and looked at Kairi.

"Hey, Kai-chan! You alright?" Emily yelled, starting to run back.

"Yeah! Sorry! I was just reading a text I got from a friend out loud. Please keep walking! We're nearly done!"

"Okay!"

Everyone started walking when Akito shouted out:

"Kai-chan!"

"What is it?" Kairi looked up and saw that Agito- No. _Akito_ had a _very _serious face on. "Akito-kun..."

Akito smiled. "Hurry up, okay? I'm lonely~!"

Kairi tried to smile back. "O-okay!"

Ikki stared at Kairi. "You lied again."

"Ikki..."

"What? We have to hurry up? Stop avoiding my questions and maybe I will."

"I..."

"What, Kairi?"

"I... thought that if I didn't say that... then... then he would... feel really g-guilty... and... I didn't w-want him... t-to... I just want e-everyone to be... happy..."

Tears started flowing from Kairi's pale face.

Ikki's face softened. He gave her a warm hug before releasing her. "Come on," he cooed, wiping her tears away, "We better not let everyone see you cry, that'll just hurt them even more, right?"

Kairi could only nod.

"Here, I'll carry you and you just pretend you fainted so you can hide your face, okay?"

"Thanks, Kiki-chan." Kairi wiped her tears with the sleeve of Akito's orange jacket. She hopped on to Ikki who ran like the wind to catch up with the others. He laughed.

"Just like old time, ey?" He grinned.

Kairi nodded, face burrowed into Ikki's neck. But as she recalled old memories, she couldn't help but smile.

"Kiki-nii-chan..."

"OI!!"

Kazu turned around at Ikki's yell and ran to scowl at him.

"Took your time! God!"

Emily ran up with him. "Did Kai-chan faint?" she asked, brows furrowing and face creasing.

Ikki laughed as he touched her face, smoothing out the lines of concern. "Don't make your pretty little face like that, one day it might stay like that."

"Ikki..."

Ikki yelped as he ran away from the angry Kazu. "DUDE!! KAZU!! CHILL!! I WAS" - yelp - "WAS... NOT HINTING ANYTHING OR DOING ANYTHING FUNNY!! AH!!"

"IKKI, YOU BASTARD!!"

"Wee~! This seems like fun! Can I join?" Akito appeared beside Ikki who glanced at him with a scared look on his face.

"No."

"Aw, but-"

"No."

"Why?"

"You have to carry Kai-chan," and he zoomed off with an angry Kazu, hot at his heels.

"Hmm," Akito hummed. "He didn't want me to play after all. Ah well, I got Kai-chan~!" He chirped. He looked down at the girl's pale face with slight signs of redness around her eyes. He frowned.

"Kai-chan... You're awake."

"... No I'm not."

"Yes you are!" Akito chided.

"No I'm not..."

"Then why can I hear you talk?"

"It's really all a figment of your imagination... You're going insane." A faint smile.

"Then how come I can see your lips move?"

"... What I said before." Bigger now...

"Huh? But that's not fair!" Akito pouted. "Aha! I see a smile! Kai-chan! Then how come I can see you smiling?"

"I'm... not!..." Visible now.

"I'll ask the others! Oh, look! I see Ikki-kun and Kazu-san now! Oh, Ikki-kun's on the floor... Oh well, Kazu-saaaan! Is Kai-chan smiling?" Akito floated towards the taller boy.

He glanced at the girl and gasped for air again. "N-no..." he puffed. "It's in your imagination, kid. N-now go away, I'm... t-tired..."

"Kazu-sama! You're all tired! You didn't have to chase Ikki!" Emily ran to Kazu, fussing over him.

Akito frowned and looked down at Kairi who was smiling _very_ widely now. "Ah! Kai-chan! You're smiling, you're smiling! I can see it! Kazu-san was lying, the little liar!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..." Akito pouted. "Don't suddenly go quiet, Kai-chaaaaan...!!"

"..."

"KA-EE-RI-CH-AAAAAN!!"

"..."

"Fine! I shall let go of you!"

"NO!"

"Aha! I have caught you, criminal Kai-chan! Now put up your hands and surrender!" Akito beamed.

"..."

"Aw, don't ignore me, Kai-chaaaan~!" Akito whined. "Kai-chaaaan!"

"..."

"I'm changing to Agito now; wonder what he'll say about this," Akito threatened with a 'tut tut tut' in his voice.

_I say she's saying 'Fuck off', Akito._

Akito frowned. "Agito's saying that you're saying 'Fuck off' - that true?"

"..."

"... He's also saying that I'm too noisy..."

"..."

"And that I'm annoying you... And that he would ignore me if he was you so he doesn't blame you... And that I'm a total dickhead- Hey, wait!"

Kairi couldn't control her laughter as she cracked up.

Akito beamed. "See, see? You were awake! I win! I win! See, Agito? I win!"

_Yeah, now shut up..._

"Agito told me to shut up," he told Kairi. "Can you tell him off? He's bullying me, Ha- Err... Kai-Sensei... -chan."

Kairi shook her head. "You can't call your teacher '-chan', Akito-kun. And you can't give them nicknames."

Akito smiled. "Can now!" he chirped. His face saddened a bit. "Sorry that I nearly said Haneba..."

Kairi looked away with a far away look. "Don't worry about it, its fine..."

Akito frowned but nodded. He continued carrying her.

"Hey! Little brat! You didn't help me get up!"

Akito spun around and smiled at Ikki. "Gomen, Ikki-kun, but I had to prove to Kai-chan that I'm not insane - and I did! I did!"

Ikki glanced at Kairi before nodding and still keeping his 'I don't care' look as he continued carrying his bags and suitcases.

"I can walk, you know..." Kairi muttered.

Akito grinned devilishly but playfully. "No way, Kai-chan! You lied to me so this is your punishment!"

"Fine," Kairi huffed and turned away.

"Hey... guys..." Kazu turned around. Emily followed suit. "It's starting to get dark. If we've been walking for this long, then it could still be pretty far away from here. I reckon we need to set camp."

"I agree, and everyone looks tired," Emily added.

"Yata!" Simca sighed. "My feet are killing me, so I wouldn't mind. But the idea of spending the night in the middle of nowhere..."

Kururu sighed. "Get over it, Simca."

"But..." Ringo paused, "we should have seen the resort by now... We've been walking for nearly half an hour already..."

"Well." Ikki stood up on a random rock and took a superhero pose. "I SAY WE CAMP UP!!"

_BAM!_

"... You mean down," everyone muttered, staring at the fallen Ikki in the hole.

---

"I _swear_ that there was a rock there..." Ikki muttered for the (how many ever many times)th time as he winced from his wounds.

Kairi sighed. "You keep saying that..."

"But it's true!" Ikki defended with a thump to his chest but winced. "I swear!"

"Yeah, I know, but it was a trap for idiots, like you, to fall in..." she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing..."

"She said it was a trap for idiots like you to fall in," Kururu said as she walked pass towards the other Three Girls plus Nakayama.

"You plan worked, Nakayama! Did you see their faces?" Simca chirped.

Nakayama paused before sighing. "No, it didn't work. Did you see how he was carrying her later? They were laughing."

"Damn and I thought that the plan would work... Hm..." Simca tapped her chin thoughtfully.

Ringo sighed and looked down. She felt guilty, going along with this plan since she knew that Ikki was related to the bag.

_Last year, I saw him buy that same bag then wrap it up. I wondered who it was for and I'm guessing it was for Kairi-chan..._

"Why the long face?" Simca piped up, destroying Ringo's chain of thoughts. "Well, whatever, but just don't turn out looking like a horse- Get it? Horse? Long face? Haha~!"

The others laughed at the failed attempt while Ringo just shook her head with a small smile on her face.

"What's so funny?" Ikki asked from the log he was sitting on. "OUCH!! Kai-chan, that hurts!" he yelped as he spun around but Kairi firmly grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to stay still.

"OW!!"

"Your fault..." Kairi muttered, and then went back to her work after she knew Ikki wouldn't dare attempt turning around again.

"So... OW!! What's so f- OW!! Funny?" Ikki asked, twitching as he felt sharp pains run through his body.

"Oh, a joke Simca made."

"What was it?" Ikki asked, delightedly to get his mind elsewhere from the pain – _OW!! – _in his body.

"Don't worry, wasn't really funny anyway." Simca waved her hand up and down.

"Oh."

"I've got a joke, Ikki-kun! I've been trying to tell Kazu-san but he's a big meanie and won't listen!" Akito floated over to Ikki who was in much pain and would rather die than hear Akito's joke.

"Get lost, kid," Ikki muttered.

"No way!" Akito grinned and sat next to the grumbling Ikki. "Kai-chan, you're too nice, giving Ikki-kun first aid when he's being so rude to me."

"Well if I don't give Kiki-chan first aid then he'll die from the next thing that happens to him." Kairi pulled the bandage tightly without mercy.

"GYA GYA GYA!!" Ikki cried. "THAT HURTS!!"

"Hold still," Kairi muttered. She pulled the bandage harder (much to Ikki's comfort) and tied it into place. "There," Kairi said, examining her handiwork. "That should do it…"

Ikki glanced at Kairi's eye and shuffled through his bag with Kairi's stuff in. "Here," he said, holding out a dark coloured plastic bottle.

Kairi took it and become to drink. She coughed and some red liquid ran down the side of her lips.

"Ah," she muttered. "Better clean that up...–"

"Delicious…"

Kairi looked mildly shocked at the blue-haired boy who was licking the blood from her face.

"Agito-kun…" she muttered.

Agito pulled away and licked his lips with a devilish smile. "I haven't tasted blood for a long time… Hope to be having more from you soon. 'Night." And he walked away to his sleeping bag.

Ikki started to curse the blue-haired boy. "Damn little brat… I'll teach him some manners…"

Emily returned, changed in a pair of grey track pants and fairly loose T with the words 'I'll dream of you tonight' printed on it.

"Come on, Kai-chan! You must be tired! Let's go to sleep now… Hey, girls, let's go to sleep, I said!" Emily said loudly over everyone.

Kazu rubbed his ears. "Geez, you didn't need to speak so loud… We're not deaf, unlike you…"

_BAM!_

Emily smiled. "Let's go!" And she dragged the girls with her to their sleeping bags or doonas or something they borrowed from their friends to sleep in for the night.

Ikki and Kazu sighed and joined the other boy's who were already sound asleep.

---

The next day…

"ALRIGHT YOU LAZY BUMS, WAKE UP!!"

All the boys groaned as their sleep was disturbed by a… smiling Emily.

_Not again…_ Kazu grumbled in his head.

And so the boys were woken from their slumber and were immediately demanded to "eat" (cough… swallow whole…cough) their cold breakfast which was deliberately left on the ground for the bugs, to pack everything up and I mean _everything_, and start walking when they weren't even half awake.

And so their torture begins… aren't I, the author, nice? Smiles.

"I swear it was this way…"

"No, it was this way!"

"I believe Kazu-sama!"

"No, Ikki-kun is right~!"

"Um… no, actually…"

"Kiki-chan…"

"Fuck."

"…" (Asleep).

Sigh. "Crow. Kazu."

"NO, IT'S THIS WAY!!"

"NO IT AIN'T CROW!!"

"Guys…"

"NO, IT'S…!!"

And before they knew it, they were _lost._

But, seeing how Ringo was mature enough to pack a map and compass and other essentials, they were able to get back on track.

"Ringo-chan is the best~!" Simca cheered as she started to see some light at the end of the tunnel…

She only hoped that it wasn't a train.

Ahem. Anyway.

And so our heroes are finally back on track and are heading towards the Hot Springs of YOUTH for their holidays.

That sounds like Pokemon...

ENOUGH OF THE OTHER ANIME/CARTOON REFRENCES!!

But after a few more minutes of walking, they really started to doubt they were walking on the right path…

"Are we on the right path?" Simca whined. "We haven't seen anything for ages!"

"It's only been two hours of walking, Simca," Buccha pointed out from behind.

"Wah! Really?" Simca chewed the inside of her mouth. "But we should've seen something since we passed the sign long time ago… and it was in car too…"

"The area the owners own is very big, Simca," Ringo said. "And they only occupy a little space of it."

"But they still have those stupid signs to make us think we're nearly there…" Simca groaned.

Onigiri had his eyes fairly closed with a little opening to look through. The walk was really getting to him.

"Hm?"

He opened his eyes and yelled to everyone except Buccha and the Three Girls at the front. He pointed at what he saw. "LOOK!"

Everyone looked up and was disgusted at what they saw…

Well, expect for him, Ikki and Kazu.

They saw a sign… a _very big_ sign… but not just any sign, no it wasn't, for on the sign read 'Hot Spring of YOUTH!! A few steps to happiness and relaxation are all it takes to get there now. See you there!'

But that wasn't what they were looking at.

On it, a naked blonde girl who was only wrapped in a very, very, very, _very _small white towel was printed on it, pouting and leaning forward, exposing her cleavage even more.

The girls twitched.

_I thought this was a kid friendly hot springs…?_

Emily hit the boys who were now drooling and taking pictures with their phones.

"Onigiri!"

"Huh?" Onigiri looked up at her and blinked. "Oh! I wasn't pointing at that – though I didn't mind looking at it" – he flinched away from Emily – "b-but look ahead! It's…"

Everyone did as they were told and gasped.

No, it wasn't another sign with a naked girl on or anything but…

"A RED CARPET?!?"

…

"Hey… Where's Simca?"

"Lalala~! Come on, guys!" Simca yelled back from the red carpet.

Everyone sweat dropped.

"What's a red carpet doing all the way out here…?" they all muttered.

"But look!" Ringo yelled and pointed at something…

Black…

Glossy…

Luxurious…

Posh…

Sleek…

Long…

Limousine-ish…

"A LIMOUSINE?!?"

…

"Hey… Where are all the girls?"

"WAH~~~!!!!!!"

"OHMIGAWD~~~~!!"

And other fangirlish screams slash squeals were heard from ahead.

The boys walked up and looked over the girls (or try to in Onigiri's case, which gave him a "good reason" to look under… and yeah…).

"The hell…?" they all muttered.

"How may I help you fair ladies today?" a well-groomed, elegant, poised, angelic, God-like, IN A TUXEDO, blonde, blue-eyed, long eye lashed, etcetera, etcetera male asked with a voice like velvet and an angel's.

"KYAAAAA~~~~~!!!"

"Hey, there~," Simca purred seductively. "I'm Simca but you can call me anything you want, okay?"

"I-I'm Sumeragi Kururu! But you can call me Kururu," Kururu said softly with a smile on her face.

"Noyamano Ringo. Nice to meet you." Ringo held out her hand.

The male shook her hand and the other girls got mad at her.

"Hey!" they hissed at her when the male wasn't looking but focused on Nakayama introducing herself. "Don't you dare touch him!"

They all looked at the other girls who also hissed the same thing. They glared at them.

"Same goes for you."

Glare.

"Haha, I'm Adachi Emily, but Emily's fine." Emily grinned at the male.

The male nodded and spotted a silent female. He waltz up to her and took her hand gently.

He kissed it.

"Excuse my rude manners, but I am Avalon Kevin. You may call me just Kevin. My family owns the hot springs and I hope you _do_ enjoy your stay. I am very sorry that the taxi driver we have hired for you has abandoned you on the road to walk. It must've been very hard for you as the Hot Springs of YOUTH is such a big area and we only occupy a _very_ small space of it. Please forgive me. I will go talk to my parents about the matter of the taxi driver. But I am here to pick you up and drive you to the hot springs resort," he said velvety.

Kairi smile but with no affection or hints of trying to seduce him. "Thank you, Kevin-san. I'm Kairi. I hope we can become great friends."

Kevin placed a hand in front of her and smiled. "Please, just Kevin. I would feel really happy if you do."

Kairi paused. "No, that doesn't feel right. I have only just met you."

Kevin smiled, with the slightest tightness on the edge of his pale lips. "Alright. I will give you time to get to know me during your stay and maybe then you'll feel alright calling me without honorifics?"

Kairi gave a small nod.

During that whole time, a restrained and furious Agito gave the blonde male a death glare that would guarantee 100% certain death if looks could kill.

_That little fucker… I'll kill him! No one is allowed to fucking touch Kai-chan like that!_

_Wah~! Agito is jealous! But I can't say I'm not…What if she gets a boyfriend other than you, huh? Then wouldn't he be allowed to touch her like that?_

_Shut up! He's a totally stranger! And I don't like the way he looks at her…_

_Neither do I… Quick, Agito! Save Kai-chan-hime! Wah~!_

_I know that! As soon as I get these fuckers off me…_

Kairi felt something on her head. She looked up and saw Agito's face strangely close to hers.

"Nani, Agito-kun–?"

"Well if _Kevin_," Agito sneered, "is here to give us a ride there, then we better get into the car. Come one, Kai-chan." He took his hand of Kairi's head and held her hand and pulled her into the limousine. He opened the sleek, glossy door and followed after Kairi, but not before he gave Kevin a death glare.

"The little brat has found competition again… He has to fight for his prey now…" Ikki muttered under his breath.

Kazu looked at Ikki. "Again?"

Ikki groaned. "Yeah, and let me tell you: when it happens, stay _far away_."

Kazu's eyes widened. "Must be pretty bad…" he gulped.

"That doesn't cover it…" Ikki grumbled it as he winced and went into the limousine.

The others followed suit.

Kevin stood outside after closing the door for Simca.

"Prey, hm?" He licked his lips devilishly.

He walked around and sat in the driver's seat and started to drive to the Hot Springs of YOUTH!!

He grimaced at the name…

Couldn't his parents at _least_ have some creativity instead of copying from Naruto characters Gai and Lee?

**TBC...**

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* * *

**

Yup, so there's Chapter 4.

Haha, yeah, I was thinking of what to call the hot springs and so I was like "hot springs, hot, hot springs resort, springs, spring of youth... yeah!"

xKairix


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys!**

**Reaaaally sorry for the long wait. School's been a pain in the ass as usual and we get like tests every 2 weeks or something because we're suppose to be 'gifted and talented'.**

**Gifted and talented, my ass.**

**I had over half of this chapter done and waiting for me to complete it for weeks. Woops...**

**Enjoy!  
**

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* * *

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**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 5: Welcome to the Hot Springs of YOUTH!!

And unlike the previous chapter, this time the gang have now _actually_ properly _arrived_ at their _proper_ destination (the Hot Springs of YOUTH!!) instead of just a massive chunk of useless and shitty land…

Pardon my French.

"Wah!" Simca cried out as she let her gaze sweep over the hot springs resort. "It looks so much better than the pictures on the internet!"

Kevin smiled gently. "But of course, we have much changed it since the picture."

Kururu and Ringo also joined Simca as she looked around.

"Looks good," Ringo commented.

"I think we'll have lots of fun here," Kururu added with an angelic grin.

Kevin bowed to the girls. "And I'll be there if you need anything to help you enjoy this place to the best you can," he said velvety, making the boys all gag but the girls squeal.

Well, apart from Kairi.

She was currently pulling her bag out from the limo, Ikki also trying to get his bag out at the same time, same door.

"Shove it, babyface!" Kairi snapped at him.

"Why don't you," Ikki snapped back – man, the heartless Kairi (referring to the heartless inside of Kairi also called Kairi) was _so_ annoying sometimes. So bitchy and demanding, but-

"I said shove. It," she hissed with a death glare directed at him. If looks could kill, he would be dead. But the world doesn't work that way so nothing happened major happened to Ikki.

But he couldn't help but hug the fuming Kairi.

"So cute! My little Kai-chan is so cute when she's mad!" he cried out tears of joy. "She has definitely grown up just to be like her mother! And me, if I might add; good looks must run through the family," he added conceitedly, only to come face to face with a fist.

Kairi rolled her shoulder backwards and cracked her neck. She turned towards the bags and shoved Ikki's bag back into the limo while grabbing hers out with a silent huff.

Kevin immediately appeared at her side. "Miss Kairi, would you like me to help –?"

"No, I can manage," Kairi said in a clipped voice, walking right pass him without a glance. Agito couldn't help but smirk at Kevin's fallen face as he stared after the black haired beauty.

"W-wha?" he spluttered.

_And her eye was red instead…?!_

Agito came up to him and sneered at his face. "She's _like me_," he said, making sure he emphasized the words very strongly to get through the guy's think skull (in Agito's view). "We have a few distinct personalities showed through which side we wear our eye patch over and right now you're receiving her bitchy attitude."

"Agito-kun," the said girl said firmly from ahead.

"But most of the time she's nice instead of bitchy, which is when you would see her red eye," Agito added half heartedly as he hoisted his bag up onto his shoulder and walked coolly up to Kairi.

Kevin stood there with a growing smirk as he caught Agito's hidden words – 'she's _my_ bitch.'

"We'll see, we'll see…" he muttered darkly.

"Kevin-kuun~! Can you help me put my stuff away?" Simca whined cutely, who was suddenly in front of him.

He smiled and purred, "But of course, Simca."

"Me too!"

"No, no! Me, me!"

"No way, he's choosing me!"

"O-oi, he's helping me!"

Kazu, Onigiri and an unconscious Ikki felt slightly rejected (not that an unconscious Ikki could) at the sudden outburst from the girls as they wanted Kevin to help carrying their stuff.

"But I've got more! He should help me!"

"I bet they're really just full of shit!"

"That's not what you said a few hours ago!"

"G-guys, he's carrying my self," Kururu said between the loud yells.

"But you ain't got anything, Kururu. I've got more than you!"

At this, Kazu thought, depressed, _But I can carry that, Emily…_

"Hold on, my stuff's heavier!"

"Well, tough luck!"

Kazu and Onigiri rejectedly dragged their bags (along with the unconscious Ikki clinging like a baby onto his stuff) towards the reception where Kairi, Agito, and Buccha already were.

"Yes, we booked under Minami?" Buccha said politely, but with a slight blush because of the Australian blonde beauty in front of him. "For eleven people?"

"Just a moment," the receptionist said kindly in Japanese with a strong Australian accent and, also, a tinge of pink on her cheeks. She turned to her computer and typed stuff into it. She had a surprised look on her face and she turned back towards them. "Sorry, but we hold no record of a booking under the name Minami." She had a frown of her own to join with the many others.

"Who the fuck was the one who did the booking?" Agito growled.

"Zzzz…"

They all turned to a sleeping Ikki, who was _very_ unaware of the murderous auras glaring right at him.

---

He sighed contently as he saw naked girls everywhere he looked, all purring his name the way he wanted it.

"Ikki~!"

"Ikki-kun~!"

Ah. It was heaven.

He saw a certain girl who caught his eye, violet eyes flashing sexily at him with a wink. He floated (yes, literally _floated_) towards the purple haired naked girl and stuffed his face in between her large milky skinned breasts and breathed in her scent with a content sigh.

He moaned in pleasure as she continued to call his name, even if it did sound kind of bland...

"Kiki-chan… Kiki-chan…"

Ah, yes. It was _heaven_.

"Kiki-chan…"

Wait, he froze in between his rubbing. The only one who called him Kiki-chan was…

"KAI-CHAN, KILL THE FUCKING BASTARD!!" Agito growled.

Ikki opened his eyes and found that he had somehow made his way to Kairi during his sleep and had started rubbing his cheek on her (he thought disappointedly) rather flat chest (which wasn't actually flat at all). He looked up and stared at a murderous red eye staring right pass him, but he also saw that her eyes were far off and she was having a fight with her other half.

She blinked as her eye refocused and glared down at Ikki.

"Kiki-chan…" she muttered. "Get… the FUCK OFF ME!!"

And so Minami Ikki was sent back to Lala Land.

"How dare you touch master like that," she spat.

_I told you to swap with me, _Kairi, the normal Kairi whined from within her. _And I told you not to call me master._

_Too bad_, heartless Kairi snorted. But… _I have to thank you, for being so kind to me and all that other shit like being the first to acknowledge me… And it's a way I can return the debt for living inside of you and given this freedom. You're all I have._

_Don't apologize, it's my pleasure! And… it's comforting… to have you here._

_But Master-!_

_Don't call me master!_

Kairi sighed angrily and in defeat then felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. Her knees gave out and she fell, but into the arms of Agito.

"A… Agito-kun," she muttered weakly; punching Ikki all day had made her really tired, but she did have Agito's blood a few days before…

"Rest," Agito hushed her with his usual sharp voice but with a slight tone of affection and softness.

"But I shouldn't be this tired… A-ah!" she cried out weakly as she felt another wave of dizziness dunk her.

Agito frowned. "It was the walking. But don't worry, just go to sleep," he said.

"Hn…" And Kairi was asleep.

The blonde receptionist smiled and got back their attention.

"I'm Sophie. Sorry about the booking; I'll quickly try and find some rooms for you to sleep in that will be ready before tonight while you wait for more available rooms. You can wait over by the seats over there," she informed, pointing at some very soft and luxurious looking couches.

"Yes, please!" Onigiri cried in joy and jumped onto one, sighing in pleasure. Sure, the seats in the limousine were good but this? It just felt like he as in heaven with naked girls all around him.

Drool.

Kazu's eyebrow twitched.

"He's being perverted again…" he shrugged and sat next to the pig. Agito followed, placing his and Kairi's stuff on the floor and holding the unconscious girl to his chest on his lap.

Buccha turned back to the receptionist. "Don't mind them." He chuckled good heartedly. "You can call me Buccha like everyone else. It's nice to meet you," he said politely with a gently smile.

Sophie grinned back. "Nice to meet you too." She stuck out a tanned hand and shook hands with Buccha.

"Just call me if you're able to find some rooms." And after a nod received, he walked away towards his friends, dragging an unconscious Ikki by the leg who was _still_ somehow clinging onto his stuff even after the incident with Kairi.

A smiling (but twitching) Kevin came in, carrying lots of bags, being trailed by a few girls. He went to Sophie and asked (still with that fake smile on his face), "Sophie, where are the ladies staying tonight?"

"Oh, they didn't book and…"

"But I was called out to pick up someone…"

"…"

"So, who were we suppose to pick up then?" Kevin asked.

Silence.

"Oi Kevin, get your bloody ass back there right now! I can't be_lieve_ you picked up the wrong people! Your father and mother aren't going to be very happy. Urgh, just get your ass back there, aye," Sophie grumbled, talking in English with her Australian accent.

"Whatever," Kevin grumbled back in plain English, though he didn't have an Australian accent; it was more American (though when speaking Japanese, he would be very polite and quite the flirt).

"God!" Sophie sighed as she watched the boy walk out of the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the phone ringing.

"Hello, Hot Springs of YOUTH!! Sophie speaking, how may I help you?" she said automatically. What can she say? She's been doing this for months!

"Okay. Alright. Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Please send my regards. Okay. Thank you. Bye."

Sophie sighed – _What a drag…_

"Oi, Kevin! You don't need to pick them up anymore!"

She was met with silence.

She felt the urge to slap her forehead. "Great, the idiot went out already."

She quickly dialled his number and was only replied by a voice message.

"_Hello, this is Kevin Avalon. I am very sorry but I cannot answer the phone right now-"_

"Can't answer the bloody phone is right," Sophie grumbled, flicking back her blonde hair and slouched back into her comfy chair. "Hm." She looked down in thought before shrugging.

"Whatever. The idiot can find out for himself," she muttered to no one before turning back to the computer and started working.

Simca pouted as she walked in. "Aw; Kevin-kun is gone!" she whined.

Kururu sighed. "You're fault. He probably ran away because of you," she pointed out.

"Hey, there's our stuff." Ringo walked over to her dropped possessions and made sure it was all hers and no one had touched it, apart from Kevin of course.

Emily followed and picked up her stuff before walking towards the seats with the other following girls.

Kazu twitched as he heard his lover and her friends ramble on about 'Kevin-kun'.

"Bastard," he muttered to himself. He clenched his fists and shook in anger. Onigiri and Buccha both noticed.

"Kazu… Are you alright?" Buccha asked, concerned and staring at Kazu with his black eyes.

"Huh?" Kazu's head snapped up before nodding half heartedly. "Yeah, I'm alright."

"If you want to talk to anything, you can come to us," Onigiri added.

Kazu smiled tiredly. "Yeah… Thanks, guys."

"No problem." Onigiri nodded before grabbing a packet of chips from nowhere and started munching them. He offered some to the others who accepted.

"Nah," Kazu mumbled as he shook his head. "No thanks."

"ROAR!!" Ikki yelled as he straightened up and awoke from his slumber. He blinked at his surroundings from the floor near the leather couches before seeing a packet of chips. His face lit up as he grinned.

"Ne, Onigiri. You aren't going to leave your best friend to starve to death, are you?" he asked slyly.

"I am," Onigiri replied flatly as he continued to munch on his chips.

Ikki pouted before looking around. "Where's Kai-chan and the little brat…" he mumbled, looking for something to do. "Oi. Brat."

Agito glared at him before switching to Akito – he really didn't want to deal with Ikki from what he did to Kai-chan before. Ikki's face looked like an ideal punching bag. Now if only it looked beaten up…

"Ikki-kun," Akito piped up. "You didn't make a booking," Akito said in his cheery voice but with a slight tone of disappointment. "We have to wait now."

Ikki sighed before flopping himself next to the brat and sleeping Kairi.

"Sorry."

Akito smiled. "You're forgiven, Ikki-kun!"

Ikki sighed in relief then felt something powerful hit his cheek.

"OW!! Why'd you hit me, Akito? I thought I was _forgiven_!" he whined, holding a fist at Akito but couldn't help but whimper at the pain searing through his cheek.

"I didn't."

"Then…"

"Now Kiki-chan is forgiven."

Ikki turned to the now awake Kairi and held up a fist. He was glad to know that she had reverted back to the original Kairi – the Heartless Kairi's punches sure did hurt like hell!

"Why – ow! – you!" he growled. "You're going to pay!"

Kairi smiled tiredly before nodding weakly. "You just… try…" she said sarcastically but in barely a whisper. Her lips, in the attempt to smile, sagged downwards as she felt something grow in her throat. In a flash, she had rolled over and fell onto the cold hard ground. She pushed herself up with her heavy feeling legs and only got a step forward before collapsing again.

"Damn this!" she cursed inwardly. She felt something warm and strong help her up and she whispered "Take me to the bathroom."

She felt her legs get swooped up and her arms that felt so heavy flopped effortlessly from Akito's supporting arms. Her body felt so sore and heavy and the growing sensation in her throat wasn't helping at all.

Half way there (though Kairi couldn't remember how they had gotten there), she felt glass in her throat and as she opened her mouth, she could only cough. She felt something wet slide down her face.

_Tears?_ Kairi thought to herself. _Since when did I cry without reason…?_

"We're here, Kai-chan," a worried face from above said. She could see the frown on his face and the curved and tightness of his lips as lines drew down his face.

"Thanks," Kairi muttered before being released from the boy and stumbling into the bathroom. She was hit with the feeling she was trapped as she entered and sucked in a breath, but felt her throat tighten and the glass cut deeper. She felt her way to the sink, leaned over it and opened her mouth and coughed into the sparkling white stone.

She shut her eyes tightly as she coughed and felt the piercing sensation in her throat carwl further and further deeper into hr throat. She swallowed and took a breath before opening her eyes. She screamed.

From the other side of the door, Akito was waiting impatiently for the girl to come out of the bathroom; he wanted to know what was wrong. He was about to leave to get one of the girls to check up on her to see if she was okay when he heard an ear splitting scream. His eyes widened.

"Kairi!"

He didn't care, he didn't _give a damn_ – he wouldn't _give a fucking piece of shit, _as Agito had so kindly put it.

He barged in the room and stared at the whiteness and cleanness of the bathroom of the opposite gender. He couldn't help but be in awe at the difference from the men's bathroom. He let his eyes wander from the crystal clean sinks, to the metal taps sitting on top of them (so clean that he could see his reflection), the graffiti clear cubicles and then did they land on a small fragile looking huddled figure in the corner of the room, her black hair contrasting from the sparkling white walls.

"Kai-chan!"

But the girl didn't respond in any way, nor even acknowledge he was there – a _teenaged boy_ _standing_ in a _women's bathroom_. No, she didn't even know he was there.

He rushed over to the girl and hugged her, and surprisingly got pushed away.

They both stared in shock at each other.

Kairi realized that it was Akito and felt her eyes tear up. She couldn't contain it anymore and pushed herself from the corner and into Akito's arms opposite from her.

"Akito-kun!" she sobbed, fists full of Akito's clothes and shaking in fear.

"Shh, Kai-chan. It's alright, I'm here. What is it?" Akito cooed to her gently and softly, stroking her hair slowly in a calming order.

"I-I… I-…!" Kairi choked back her tears and tried again. Her right hand slowly came up with a finger pointing at the sinks.

"Blood," she sobbed. "I coughed out blood."

Akito's eyes widened as his gaze whipped towards the sinks. He frowned as both he and Kairi were on the ground and he didn't want the girl to stand up any time soon as he felt she might break. He was about to gently say something to Kairi when the doors slammed open.

"Is everyone okay?!" Emily yelled, panting and out of breath. Simca behind her gulped desperately for air.

"We came as soon as we heard a scream," she gasped for air before continuing. "What happened?" – no one bothered to ask why Akito was in the girls' bathroom.

Ikki slumped on the walls and stumbled his way towards Akito. "Oi brat," he puffed. "What-?"

"Is there blood in the sink?" Akito asked seriously, with a hard glint in his eyes.

Ikki paused mid step before turning to look at all the sinks, with a confused face. He shook his head. "There's no blood."

Akito frowned. "Sure?"

Ikki shook his head once again. "There's no blood," he repeated again with a frown of his own.

Emily bent down to Kairi and put on a reassuring face. "Kairi-chan, are you okay?"

There was hesitant pause before Kairi lifted her head up and pushed herself away from Akito, getting up but stumbling a little but refusing to let the others notice – Akito helped her the _tiniest_ bit. She swallowed and tried to make her voice sound as even as possible.

"Yeah," she replied with a nod of her head and a reassuring smile. "Sorry, just thought I saw a rat."

Simca looked around, as did Ringo and Kururu. "Well, it's gone now."

Kairi nodded and smiled. "Sorry for all the trouble."

Ringo smiled. "It's okay." And she walked back towards the lobby area. The others followed – Emily with a grin sent to Kairi.

Akito stared at Kairi's face. He gave a pained look.

"I don't get it," he muttered softly. "Did you cough out blood or see a rat? Or both? Or-"

"Don't worry about it, Akito-kun." Kairi smiled. "It was just a rat. Just scared me, that's all. Come on, let's go back." She walked back the boy and tugged his sleeve gently but found that the boy wasn't moving. She frowned at him, avoiding his eyes.

"Come on," she muttered. "This is a _girls'_ bathroom. You're a _guy_."

Akito took a second to put on a cheery face. She grinned at her and tugged Kairi towards the lobby area where the rest were. "Don't tell anyone okay?" he asked without looking back.

Kairi nodded with a small smile on her face. "I won't tell anyone."

_But won't tell anyone what?_

---

Sophie beamed as she walked over to Buccha. "Good news." She grinned. "Got a few rooms for you. Not as many as you originally 'booked' for, but they will do for the time being while the people with the rooms next to them leave in three days."

Buccha nodded and smiled. "Thanks, Sophie-san."

Sophie giggled but shrugged. "No problem but just call me Sophie, okay? I'm still not used to honorifics, 'kay Buccha… -san?"

Buccha chuckled. "Just Buccha is fine."

Sophie grinned. "Buccha it is then. Come on, I'll show you and your friends to your rooms," she offered.

Buccha nodded as he got up. "Sure, thanks."

"There are only three rooms that are available. Two of them can fit up to five adults, and the other is really meant to be only for one person who doesn't have much money with them," Sophie explained as her and the gang followed her.

"So… that means…" Ikki started.

"That… because Buccha is quite big…" Kazu added.

"Then he will need to share…" Onigiri added thoughtfully.

"The bigger rooms…" Ringo added; glasses on the bridge of her nose and looking up doefully.

"With three other people…" Kururu mused with a tap on her chin.

"And…" Simca piped in.

They all paused.

They all gasped.

"Buccha will -"

"CAN YOU NOT TALK AS IF I'M NOT HERE!?" Buccha roared.

They all cringed away and pouted sadly.

Buccha growled under his breath before shaking his head and resuming his normal face.

"So, if I share the bigger rooms with three other guys then five girls share the other bigger room…" Buccha did some random calculations on his random high-tech gadget that he flipped out of nowhere.

"That means, a guy and girl will have to share the smaller room!" he said.

Everyone looked blank and swayed with the dead wind.

"WHAT?!"

"But I'm not sharing a room with _her_! No way in hell!" Points rudely.

"What's wrong with sharing a room with me, huh?!" Roar, roar!

"Ah… How squishy…" Kururu mumbled quietly.

"Mm… Sharing it with another girl… Hee fufu…" Drool. Urgh, moving on.

"Maybe I could share it with Emily… Wait! No way! T-that means w-we're…" Kazu twitched.

"Ah, what are we going to do?" Sigh~.

"Akito-kun... I'l... share with Akito-kun…" Nakayama blushed.

"Maybe… Kazu-sama?" Thinks to self.

"Kazu-sama~! Want to share the room with me~?" Simca purred.

"…" Akito and Kairi stayed quiet and prepared for the war to come.

"Back off! Kazu-sama is mine!" Twitch. Twitch.

"Oh~ yeah?" Simca snorted.

"Yeah!" Emily growled.

"Hm. Let's see about that," Simca scoffed.

Emily nodded. "Okay. Your choice of battle-"

"Ikki-kun~! Want to share with me?" Simca purred.

"W-what?! I-Ikki-kun… c-can't…!" Kururu tried to squeak out her opinions but never got far.

"U-uhh…"

"… So she just moved on to Ikki after I said we'll have a battle…?" Emily muttered.

"Simca! No! Ikki isn't sharing a room with anyone!" Ringo pouted.

"Aw, says who~?"

"S-says…!"

"I'll share it with any girls!" the pig cried from the middle of the argument.

"NO WAY!!"

Bam!

"…" Dead.

And so on… (Author too lazy).

"STOP IT!!"

Everyone froze and stared at Sophie who was grinning.

"Good, now that I've got your attention, here's my plan," she said. "We do exactly as Buccha says."

"But who's sleeping together?" Kururu piped in. _Please be with Ikki-kun, please be with Ikki-kun..._

"Ahh…"

Pause. Evil glint in eye.

"Those two!"

"EH?!"

Kairi's and Akito's mouth dropped open at the exact same time – _What?!_

"Yup!" Sophie grinned. "You hear me right."

"B-b-but…! K-Kai-chan…! D-… the- damn brat…!" Ikki spluttered, much more surprised than anyone else. _The brat and Kai-chan?! No, must protect Kai-chan's innocence at all cost!_

"But why?" Nakayama protested with a pout.

Sophie shrugged. "Eh. 'Cos I say so. Anyway, the room is pretty small since it's only for one person so they're a good size. And none of the girls want to sleep with _him_ anyway."

Onigiri felt offended at the finger pointed directly at him. "Hmph!"

"Well, here we are!" Sophie grinned.

Ikki could only groan as he started thinking of the many things the damn brat and 'his' little Kai-chan could do…

_Much protect her innocence at all cost!_

---

"Yeah, yeah…"

"And you better not lay a single finger on her, got it?"

"Yeah –"

"And you can't touch her stuff. You must remain on _your_ side of the room at all times."

"Yeah –"

"And no funny business, alright? If I hear that you've had se –"

"Alright! That's enough; get _out_, Kiki-chan!" Kairi growled and shoved Ikki out of the room.

Ikki looked back and started to protest. "But I'm worried about you, Kai-chan! What if the damn brat-?"

"He will do no such thing, right Agito-kun?" Kairi eyed Agito.

Agito tried to keep a nonchalant face on and his emotions in check.

"Yeah."

"See?" Kairi looked at Ikki with an I-told-you-so look.

Ikki stared at Kairi before glaring at Agito, opening his mouth and raising a finger.

"Don't you dare start." Kairi fixed him with a glare.

Ikki shut his mouth and stomped off, muttering 'damn brat' and other colourful words.

Kairi sighed as she flopped onto the futon on the floor.

"How troublesome," she thought out loud, hands over her eyes and groaning in annoyance.

Agito flopped down next to her.

"Fucking crow," he added.

He turned towards her and stared at her soft face for awhile. He slowly stretched out his hand towards her and let it linger on her face. She sighed in content.

"Agito-kun…" she muttered softly.

"Shh…" Agito said softly to her and continued to gently caress her face.

Kairi gave up and leaned into his warm hand.

They laid there in complete silence apart from their beating hearts without a care of the world.

"Hey, Kai-chan- Holy shit!"

They both jumped and Agito's eyes widened.

"Oh… fuck…!" he cursed before running away for his dear life with an angry Ikki behind him.

Kairi watched them for a second before sighing and lying back in bed with a smile on her face.

_Those two..._

---

He stepped ever so softly inside the room, slowly closing the traditional paper door behind him. It shut with a silent click.

He sighed as he stopped in front of a sleeping girl, breathing softly – in and out, in and out.

"Stupid girl," he muttered softly as he bent down to pull the cover up on her. He paused then decided to sit down next to her and started to caress her face and twirl his fingers into her soft silky hair.

He didn't know how long they had stayed like that, but before he knew it, they both had sweet dreams.

---

She slowly drifted out of the darkness, opening her eyes ever so slowly. She yawned; she blinked; and closed her eyes again. She grimaced – _Damn sunlight… Too bright._

She shied away into the darkness. It felt so warm and comforting for some reason, she realized.

A low moan.

The shuffling of clothes and warm bodies.

A yawn.

"Mmm... Kai-chan?" Agito blinked.

Kairi blinked before blushing and hiding her head into his warm body.

"Agito-kun... what... happened?" she asked quietly.

Agito's face turned red before running his hand through her hair.

"Nothing," he replied. "I was getting chased by the damn crow after..." - at this, they both blushed at yesterday's event – "yeah, and then when I came back, you were sleeping..."

"Ahh..."

They were silent.

Kairi suddenly pulled away and sprung up.

"Ah! I need to get changed. What time is it? Agito-kun, I need to get ready. Where are my clothes? Oh, there they are. Why aren't-?"

Agito tuned her out and dug his head into the pillow.

"Agito-kun... Agito-kun...!... Agito-kun!"

"What?" he grumbled.

"Get out, I'm changing."

"Too bad... I'm tired as fuck..."

Kairi fumed before whirling around and stomping her heel.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Get out."

"Fine- Wait." Agito sprung up and glared at the smug Kairi. He scowled. "You little..."

"Well?" Kairi raised a brow. "Aren't you going to get out? You sure are taking your time."

"What if I ain't getting out?" Agito raised a brow.

"Well, I'm going to have to change that."

"Like to see you try."

"Oh, you would love that wouldn't you." Kairi rolled her eyes.

Agito smirked and a wild glint flickered in his eyes. "Yes, I would," he said hungrily.

Kairi didn't think he would reply in such a manner and blushed. She scowled and grabbed her clothes and stormed towards the door.

Agito raised a brow. "Where are you going?"

Kairi turned around with a scowl on her face. "Where do you think? I'm going to get _changed_."

Agito stared at her before jumping up and Kairi didn't realised that he had already pressed her up against the door, trapping her with his long arms to her sides.

"Oh really?" he muttered into her ear – Kairi shivered and felt her knees buckle. "Well, Kai-chan, you aren't getting anywhere. Besides, there's not much point going out there to find a room to change into."

"And why is that?" Kairi flashed him a doubted look.

Agito smirked. "Well, for one, people will see you in your pajamas and" - he gave her athe once over - "you know what I mean," he finished with a smirk.

Kairi blushed as she looked down at her choice of clothes. A loose white singlet with only a tighter black singlet underneath and a _very_ short black with white polka dots pj shorts, giving a rather nice look of her long, slender legs. Both singlets also seemed to be a bit _too_ thin...

Agito continued after he knew that Kairi had realised what she was wearing.

"_And_ what if you were to meet the damn crow on the way?" He smirked as he saw the girl shudder beneath him. "And, of course, kinda weird, don't you think: a girl in pjs going into the toilets then walking out dressed in different clothes with clothes in her arms including her underwear," he added. "I'm sure some of the guys would like that."

Kairi gave him a glare after she saw the sense in his words. "Fine," she snapped. "But no looking."

Agito smirked. "But of course, princess. Whatever you say. Thank you for listening to me," he gave a throaty laugh before giving her a quick peck on her cheek and disappearing into the covers of his fuuton, leaving a blushing Kairi who was about to faint.

She gently touched the spot where his soft warm lips had met and she couldn't help but blush even more.

"Hey, Kai-chan!"

She jumped as she heard the muffled yell from the boy. Damn him, he's making her heart beat faster and faster...

"Hurry up! I need to get changed as well... Fuck! I haven't change since yesterday!"

Kairi laughed as he continued to scold at her to hurry up.

She slipped off the straps of her singlet and let it fall down. She shivered at the cold feeling of being exposed. She quickly changed and twirled in front of the mirror provided.

Agito was becomign slightly agitated. The thought of her changing clothes slighty... put him on an edge. He shuffled uncomfortably and hoped that she didn't think he was trying to peek. He growled when she had taken too long.

"Oi, Kai-chan- oof!" he wheezed as he felt something slightly heavy on top of him. He threw the covers off and was met face to face with Kairi who was on top of him with a grin.

"You can go change now, Agito-kun. Don't worry, I won't look. I'm going to be sorting out my stuff. Besides, shouldn't take you too long," she finished with a poke in his tones stomach.

He flinched under her sudden jab and lifted himself up to look at her at eye-level.

"Yeah, I will only take a second unlike _someone_ here," he sneered. He could feel her body radiate heat and their noses were touching – and her lips weren't that far either...

Kairi scowled and stood up and began to unpack her things.

Agito looked at her and raised his eyebrows in satisfaction.

She was wearing a white singlet underneath her black, white, and red coloured zipped up hoodie. He must admit, he was jealous of her hoodie, it looked pretty cool, the red dashing across the black and white striped pattern. She was wearing a short black and white tartan skirt and teared stockings (though he didn't know if they were teared on purpose or not) underneath and black converse.

He mused; he would pick something out to match hers.

Kairi blinked as she found an item in her hand that was not hers. It was a grey shirt with (what seemed to her) broken black and silver wings hilighted by purple in the corner of the shirt. She blinked and thougth it must've been one of the other guys but it looked pretty small so...

"Ne, Agito-kun? This yours?"

And forgetting that Agito was in the process of changing, caught him half naked.

"Ah!" she squeaked out and blushed as her eyes couldn't help but travel up and down his toned stomach.

Agito looked at the shirt in her arms and walked over to her.

"So that's where it went," he muttered to no one. He bent over her from behind and took it out of her hands.

Kairi could feel his the heat radiating from his warm body and had to stop herself from turning around and hugging him – it was _such_ a cold morning! Well, that was the only excuse she could come up with if she had hugged him...

She was holding onto her breath and let it out as she felt his arms retract, only to sharply inhale it again as she felt strong arms wrap around her and soft hair fall from her left shoulder.

"Thanks, Kairi," Agito said quietly, but knew she could hear him. "I'll get something for you for finding my shirt I wanted," he muttered before pecking her on the cheek and walking away to find his jeans.

Kairi stared at his exposed back as he walked away and turned aroudn quickly as she rememebr he was going to change into his jeans now.

The image of his body and the electric shock she felt run up her spine when he kissed her burned into her mind.

Kairi giggled.

_I think I'm going to like it here..._

**TBC...**

**

* * *

**

**Well, there's chapter 5. (: Lets hope I can get chapter 6 up soon.**

**Sorry if Agito seems a bit out of character but he acts differently around Kairi, which can lead to something bad... Fufufu... Ah! No, not planning anything dramatic in the future chapters to come... *evil glint in eyes***

**I've been told that the dialogue is sometimes confusing so I just want to make myself clear:**

**Sorry that it's a bit confusing but there are so many characters involved and it gets a bit boring if I just keep writing '... he said... she said... he said... she yelled... he cried...' etc. etc. at the end of every speech quotes thingy of all the characters when they're having, for example, a fight. I sometimes write their actions to give it a bit more life and make it a little more comical. Also, I'm practicing being able to portray the character through their dialogue but I WILL/HAVE made the dialogue easier to read and understand.**

**But if you have any other tips/criticism, please to do! (:  
**

**xKairix  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Waah! Really sorry for the heaps long update! I had writers block and didn't know what to write! O[]O  
**

**Thanks to all the surportive reviews that kept me going and inspired me! :D**

**Hmm, I'm bored and I should be starting my english essay which I'm doing in class tomorrow but I'm going to start writing up the next chapter because I've just been so motivated to! ;D**

**But, ehhh, this chapter isn't as good as the others because there were times when i was like YEAH, and bleh, i dont feel like writing because I can't think of anything to write..T___T**

**But I hope you guys still enjoy it! ^^  
**

* * *

**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 6: ...coughcough...

"Ne, Agito-kun?" Kairi gave the said boy a doubtful look. "You really aren't going to..."

Agito rolled his eyes. "Look, if I'm putting them on, then it must mean I'm going to wear them."

And no, they were _not_ talking about Agito wearing something... weird...

Kairi frowned. "You do realise that you can't A.T. inside a resort..." she pointed out.

Agito rolled his eyes again but said no reply. He got up in a swift and easy movement and put a bit of pressure onto his heel. He slowly rolled forwards and held out a hand to Kairi who scowled at the smug look on his face.

"Thanks," she muttered as she took his hand and helped herself up from the floor.

Agito stayed quiet and simply stared at her. Kairi blinked and her eyes narrowed slightly.

"What?" she frowned.

Agito stared at her for a while longer, a smirk fighting to appear on his lips, but he turned around and walked away.

"Hurry up, Kai-chan. You're so slow," he said with his back turned towards her.

Kairi huffed and, before hesitating, grabbed her own A.T.'s in a bag, a skateboard, and hurried after the smug boy, grabbing her shoes on the way out.

"Wait for me!"

---

"LATE!" yelled a voice that caused everyone around to cringe.

"Fucking crow! It's still too early in the morning to be yelling at me!" Agito growled.

"Oh really, huh?" Ikki yelled back.

The others dragged them outside by the collars so they wouldn't disturb the other guests in the inn. Sophie grinned as she watched them disappear on the other side of the door before getting back to work.

"This'll be fun," she smiled to herself.

"So," Ikki spoke up from the group, "where to?"

"Well, we could try the hot springs later in the evening, you know?" Ringo piped up.

Ikki nodded. "Okay, but now what are we going to do?"

Everyone wondered what they could do. There was an amusement park but they planned on going a bit later in the week.

"We could go swimming!" Emily gasped. "There's a really nice river just somewhere to the east so we can go have a swim there!"

"But we're already dressed up nicely..."Kairi said as she looked around at everyone else and confirmed it. But in her mind, she saw the Heartless Kairi emerge.

_The truth is you don't have any bathers, do you? _she said.

_Mmm._

"How about the city?" Agito suggested. "Just near here. The place where we got off the train. We could just have a look around then go back again another time when we know the place better."

"You know, for once, the brat said something right," mused Ikki.

"Don't be mean!" Kairi scowled.

"I'm sorry!" Ikki cried to the girl who had a frown and irritated look on her face.

"But how are we going to get there?" Emily asked.

Everyone was silent as they pondered. No, a taxi would be bad; they all imagined the last time they all took a taxi together. Not that great...

Kazu looked at Agito's AT's. He shrugged. "We could AT there?" he suggested.

Everyone stared at him for awhile before exclaiming: "Genius!"

So those who had not yet had their ATs with them went to get them before setting off. They all could but since Nakayama couldn't, she was riding Bucha's back.

"Hey, Kairi-chan?" Emily asked.

"Hm?" Kairi looked up.

"Where are your ATs?"

"Oh. My ATs need to be fixed. Hehe." Kairi grinned sheepishly as she unconsciously tried to make her bag seem unnoticable. She kicked herself off the ground on her skateboard and did a few tricks before landing back onto the ground. Agito looked at her doubtfully from the corner of his eye as he saw her grab her ATs on the way out. He ran up next to her and put on a smug grin.

"I can do better," and he jumped up higher than her and did a few more tricks whilst in the air. "See?"

Kairi crinkled her nose and looked the other way. "Whatever. That's just because you got ATs. I just have a normal skateboard."

"Where are your A.T.s?" Agito asked.

"Getting fixed," Kairi nonchalantly replied.

"'Fixed'?" Agito raised a brow. "By who?"

"No one of your concern. Anyway, Heartless wants to come out..." and her eyepatch switched a moment later. She stared at Agito with her red eye before turning away and kicked off the ground to go faster. As she passed Agito, she whispered:

"_You're treading in deep water, Wanijima Agito."_

Agito stared at her retreating back and narrowed his eyes.

_Stupid girl. I can do as I like. Fuck._

In his mind's eye, he saw Akito with a worried look.

_Maybe she's trying to prevent someone from getting hurt. I don't think Heartless is bad; she's just very protective of Kai-chan._

Agito snorted inwardly. _Whatever you say, Akito,_ he thought, _whatever you say._

Ikki rolled up next to him. His posture was crouched and hands stuffed into his pockets. His eyes had a calculating look in them and he peered above his hair to look in front of him.

"Oi brat," he said. "She's right. We shouldn't thread in such deep water." And then he rolled off.

Agito stared at his back and growled. "This is so gay. I'm switching."

"Huh?" Akito blinked. "Wha? Agito?" He looked at himself before grinning and running after Ikki. "Ikki-kun! I'm out! Wee~!"

A loud 'oof!' could be heard in the distance.

"Alright girls! We need to come up with a plan," Simca whispered to the other girls involved in the Kai-chan mission.

"Well, our objectives are-" Ringo pulled out a piece of paper and they all sweatdropped as they saw that they hadn't really completed any of the objectives.

"Well, we know quite a bit about Kairi-chan already, so I reckon we've finished investigating about her," Kururu piped up.

Simca nodded and looked at the other girls. "Girls, I think this is a good time to get close to her..."

The others nodded.

"Oh, by the way... We need to tell Nakayama about this plan," Ringo said as she watched the girl be carried by Bucha with Onigiri at his heels trying to get a good look up her skirt.

They all sweatdropped.

Nakayama's yells could be heard in the distance.

---

"Wah!" Ringo gasped as she entered the city.

"It's really beautiful," Kururu whispered.

"And... oh my god! Look at all those shops!" Simca squealed.

As the girl's went on and on about how much they liked the city, the boys just stood in the background like guys do.

Heartless (the heartless inside of Kairi; they decided to call her Heartless to avoid confusion) blinked as she looked up at the sky and started walking towards some steps that dipped down into an open area. She sat on the edge of the steps and reached her hand out towards some birds. They weren't scared of her but as soon as some of the rest of the group walked towards her, they flew away. Heartless watched the birds fly freely in the sky.

"Hey, Heartless?" Emily said from behind.

"Mm?" Heartless hummed in a daze.

"You want to go have a look around the city?"

"Sure," she blankly chirped. "Let's do that."

For the rest of the day, she felt very down and in a daze. And before long, Ikki had confronted her about it.

"Hey, look, I know you're Heartless and all right now but you've been feeling a lot depressed today than usual." He stared into her eyes. The others were inside a store while they were finishing their ice creams. Ikki, being the big and fast eater he was, finished a long time ago and offered to stay outside with Heartless.

"I think so too," Heartless chirped back bluntly and in a dead tone.

Ikki gave her a weird look. "You don't seem to care. You're very weird."

"Thank you. I shall honour that compliment forever, dear Kiki-kun," Heartless sarcastically said. Before she knew it, Ikki had pinned her up against the wall. She smirked. "You might want to watch it, Kiki-kun. Don't want you to get killed-"

"Kairi."

Heartless blinked and stopped and was speechless for a moment because the look Ikki had and the way he had said her name was so unwavering and demanding that it was scary. She smirked.

"Hmm. Well" – she flicked his arm away and walked away from him – "it was nice talking to you, Kiki-chan."

Ikki stared at the girl's back with narrowed eyes. He wasn't finished, there was still something he needed to ask. He had to.

"Is something going to happen to Kairi?" he whispered quietly, but he knew that Heartless had heard him because she stiffened for a moment before continuing to walk away. He jumped as he felt something cling onto his arm: "Simca?!" he cried.

"Ikki-kun~! We're done! Let's go to a new shop~" she cheered.

"Huh-? Oh. Yeah, sure," Ikki muttered. And as the group walked through the rest of the city, he stared at the back of the dark haired girl in front of him.

_What's wrong, Kairi...?_

---

"Wah! That was so fun!" Emily sighed as she walked into the inn. She threw her arms up and nearly hit a teenage boy next to her.

"Hey! Watch it, bitch!" he growled as he recovered.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?"

Emily suddenly seemed a thousand times bigger.

"A-ah, nothing!" the boy yelped as he scurried away.

"Eh?" Emily blinked. "Why is that boy running away like a mouse?"

The people around her sweatdropped and the same thought entered their heads:

_Gee nahh..._

"Ahh!" the boy yelped as he bumped into Sophie, both falling onto the ground. "Sorry!" the boy cried before getting up and running off without helping Sophie up.

"Here."

Sophie looked away from the boy to see Buccha holding out a hand. She took it with a smile.

"Thanks!" she squeaked as Buccha pulled her up rather easily.

"No problem," Buccha smiled. The others watched from a distance and 'aww'ed.

"That's so cute!" Kururu squeeled and Ringo nodded and sighed. Her side glance to Ikki did not go unnoticed by Emily who grinned and dragged her away:

"Come with me, Ringo!" she cheered

"E-eh?! E-"

"We'll see you guys later!" Emily yelled before her and Ringo were away from sight.

The others watched dumbly.

"Well... that was weird," Kazu coughed.

"Jealous that your girlfriend is turning lez?" Ikki snickered.

"W-what?! No!" Kazu growled. "Emily is NOT a lezzo. She loves me," he added rather weakly and unsure in Heartless' point of view but she made no comment.

"Well, if you don't mind me," she piped up, "I'm going to my room."

"I'll come!" Akito cheered and waved his arms in the air, only to be taken a hold of by the collar.

"Not so fast," Ikki growled.

"Oh." Akito blinked. "Sad face," he said as he pouted.

"Hehe. Can't do anything sneaky can you?" Kazu grinned at Akito.

Akito gasped. "Kazu-kun! You think that lowly of me? It is Agito who is dirty!"

_You little fucker!_

"But let's go eat something! I'm hungry!" Simca whined. Everyone laughed and all went to the cafe in the inn.

---

"Wait!" Ringo gasped. "Emily!" But the girl did not answer but widely grin.

"Emily! Wait! Stop!"

"Here we are!" Emily yelled as they arrived in front of their door. She flipped open the door and ran to her suitcase. Ringo was at the door and she slowly walked in.

"Uhm, what is it?" Ringo asked as she neared the excited girl who ignored her.

"Where is it, where is it, where is it-?" the girl repeated over and over again. "Aha! Found it!" She lifted up a dark item from her bag.

"Hey Emily, what-? Whoa," Ringo breathed. "That's...sexy..."

Emily nodded as she grinned and looked at the black sultry dress. "I was saving it for Kazu-sama, but I was thinking you could have it."

"W-what?" RIngo squeaked. "What do you mean?"

"Why, with Ikki of course!" Emily laughed. "Just wear it one day and he won't be able to resist!"

Ringo's face instantly went red and she had an embarrassed look on her guilty face. "B-b-bu-but, Simca and Kururu-chan! We-we, we're-"

"Don't worry about them!" Emily jokingly narrowed her eyes. "All you have to set your mind to is capturing Ikki's heart! Okay?"

The last sentence sounded more like a statement then a question so Ringo didn't answer.

"Yosh! Mission: Capture Ikki's heart!" Emily cheered.

The door opened and Simca and Kururu popped in. They were quite surprised when they saw Emily and Ringo sitting in deep concentration playing a game of cards.

"It's your turn," Emily grinned evilly with a glint in her eye.

"Why yes, it is," Ringo replied in the same manner. They both turned to the two freaked out girls.

"Fufufu..."

"A-ah! W-we'll just be going back now!" Kururu stuttered and her and Simca fought to be the first out.

"Eh? Hmm..." Emily and Ringo blinked and suddenly seemed to have returned to their former self. "How weird."

---

"Woo! Let's go to the hot springs!" Simca cheered. The other girls were in high spirits too, and they happily rushed to the women's hot springs, dragging a rather rigid and embarrassed Kairi along.

Ikki scratched his head and sighed.

Kazu sighed too.

Onigiri sighed three.

Agito and Bucha didn't sigh. They just watched as the three boys gloomed over their little heartbreak: there was no unisex hot springs. Of course.

"What idiots," Agito mumbled with his arms crossed, with a disapproving look for the three depressed boys.

Bucha nodded, and sighed at them on all fours, with fallen faces.

Agito walked off towards the male hot springs and Bucha followed.

---

"Waah, that was so nice~" Simca cried as she stretched her arms in the air.

"Mm!" Ringo agreed with a bliss look on her face. Kururu had the same face.

Emily grinned before noticing Kairi who seemed to look very embarrassed. She grinned even wider. "Come on, Kairi! Don't be shy! Let us see that be-au-tiful body of yours! Come on, come on! Don't be shy!"

"Waah! Emily-chan!" Kairi cried with a red face as she attempted to tried cover herself up more with the towel she had. She noticed had seen the other girls' towels and they were all pretty small as well – they barely covered Simca's and Ringo's extremely busty body. There was some pervert working at this place, she fumed.

She got broken out of her thoughts when her towel was taken away.

There was silence. Total awe silence.

"Waah, Kai-cha~n! You have such a cute body~!" Simca squealed.

There was steam everywhere but you could still make out a few things. Kairi was glad that at least there was some steam.

"Ehh, such nice smooth skin!" Kururu exclaimed as she started touching Kairi's body. "I want skin like yours!"

"Kai-chan! You need to grow more to become curvier so you can pick up all the guys!" Ringo grinned as she gave the thumbs up. Emily, although jealous, had to admit that she was right. If Kairi could grow bigger breasts and become just a little curvier, then all the guys would be drooling over her.

"That's our little Kai-chan!" Emily squealed as she tightly hugged a blushing Kairi.

"A-ah! No! P-please, s-stop!...Ah! No..! Uh..Uhm!..Ah!...No! Eh, s-stop!...Wah! Please be gentle!...A-ah!"

Of course, all of this didn't go unnoticed to the red faced boys next door.

---

Simca grinned as she saw the guys as the girls got out from the changing rooms.

"Ne, ne! So how was it~?"

All the guys coughed and instantly went red.

Agito couldn't help but glance at Kairi when a million dirty thoughts entered his head about what had happened at the girl's side of the hot spring.

Of course, Akito was never going to let him live it down and Agito never went to sleep that night as his head was only filled with dirty thoughts as Kairi slept obliviously some few metres from him.

**TBC...**

**Tehehe.. *w***

**Naughty little Agito. |3  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! How's everything?**

**I just had my birthday 3 days ago 8D  
WOO! but man, don't feel any different _**

**BTW, important poll down at the bottom, IT'S CRUCIAL! IT'S LIFE OR DEATH! GAHHH D:**

**and, I'm experimenting with a new writing style! There's more description of things and a mix of shorter and longer paragraphs. I doubt it's as humourous as before though D: I'm losing my touch!**

**But tell me what you think! Like it or hate it?  
**

**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 6: Shopping-desu!

"...gito...? Agito...?"

"Wha?" Agito mumbled as he awoken from bleary eyed sleep. "Mn," he groaned.

Light peered in from the nearby window and lightly hit his face. His eyes slowly opened and adjusted to the light. He lifted an arm to wipe his eyes and tried to roll over before he noticed some extra weight. An eyebrow twitched.

And it wasn't because he thought he had gained weight.

"K-K-K...KAIRI?" he squeaked. A second of shock, then he composed himself. Sort of. "W-what are you doing, Kai-chan?" he yelled.

"Hm?" Kairi tilted her head. She leaned forwards until their noses were a centimetre away, her hands resting on his chest. Agito then realised that she was sitting on top of him. No, _really_.

"W-what are you doing?" Agito snapped, embarrassed.

"Waking you up!" Kairi grinned before she hopped off and hummed as she exit the room fully dressed and all.

Agito shook his head as he got up and groaned at his dirty mind.

"Fuck."

"Waah, shopping!" Simca cried with a bliss look on her face. "So glad I came, this place is amazing to shop at! Ah, ne ne ne, look Ringo-chan! That dress is so cu~te! Ah! It'll definitely go well with..."

Kururu sighed but smiled all the same at the scene of Simca trying to drag poor Ringo into a clothing store. This vacation was turning out to be really fun! Yayoi smiled and followed with a large grin ("Wah! That looks so cute! Get it Ringo!").

"Hehe," Emily grinned, "time to spend all of last year's pay! Yosh! Let's go girls!"

"Hai!"

"Go Emily-cha~n!"

Without the guys, the girls had managed to go to every clothing store (save swim wear and lingerie stores) but they regretted not dragging at least one guy to carry all their bags – and trust me, there were a _lot_.

"Huff, so many bags!" Emily complained.

"Then you shouldn't have bought them for me!" Kairi pouted. "Or at least let me carry them!"

"No! It's fine, fine!" Emily stood up straight. "It's muscle and endurance training! Yosh! Training!" she proclaimed with fire in her eyes. When she saw Kairi frown, she grinned and patted her head. "Daijoubou! I promised Ikki that I would take you shopping!"

Kairi gave her a small smile. "Arigatou."

Emily grinned. "Yosh! Time to go to a new store! March on!" she cried.

"Hai!"

Meanwhile, the guys were having some bro time. They were also within town, however were at the town square sitting on the slanted steel steps circled around a silver monument of the founder of the town (and weren't doing a whole lot). It was quite well designed, and even though it was a small place in the middle of nowhere, it certainly challenged the busy streets of Tokyo. It was a quieter place however and the Mayor had obviously spent money on its maintenance. It had city edge to it while being historical and peaceful.

Kazu tugged at his white beanie and scuffed his black and white skater shoes awkwardly. Few girls gave him winks as they passed by in which he returned with a nervous smile, partly because he knew that any moment now Emily could pop out and give him the beating of his life He pulled at his loose green shirt over his white hoodie and scrunched up the sleeves to his elbows. Was it just him, or was it getting a tad hot?

Oh right, the pig next to him was releasing steam from everywhere imaginable (use your mind kids) from seeing all the hot women pass by. He inhaled deeply and exclaimed something along the lines of 'I CAN SMELL THE ESSENCE OF-'

BAM.

"Rotten pig!" Ikki yelled at him with his hand in a fist. "You're scaring away all the babes!"

"Sorry, boss..."

Ikki sighed and went back to his 'cool pose'.

_This will surely get all the chicks...fufufu..ahaha...AHAHA..._

"AHAHAHAHAHAHHA!" Ikki cackled out loud unknowingly. Instantly, the chicks started to give him weird looks and shied away.

"BOSS!"

BANG.

"Ahh...my bad..." Ikki managed to let out with his head down and as ghost was leaving his nostrils.

"Tch, fucking idiots," Agito muttered to the side. He leant forward and propped a hand up to lean on. He was wearing a dark jeans and a tight black shirt with white stripes going down along the left which hugged him in all the right places. Sure, he was a scrawny little bitch, but he did have abs. He went to work out a few times a week so many girls couldn't help but stare at him as they walked past which he had noticed. He rolled his eyes and suddenly found himself in a headlock by none other than the 'fucking crow' as said by himself.

"What did you say, huh? Motherfucking kid! Respect your elders!" he growled.

"Fuck face!"

"Little brat!" Ikki knuckled Agito's head quite forcibly (_little bitch can man up!_) and some girls giggled at the 'brotherly' display. He immediately jumped and went into mush mode. "Boobies~" he drooled. The saliva fell onto his torn jeans and Agito scowled in disgust and tried to inch away. No luck.

"Ora! What is with this brat? Is he a man? Why isn't he focusing on those lovely dumplings right there!" Ikki yelled as he knuckled the poor boy's head.

"FUCKING CROW!"

Meanwhile, Buccha was lazing back with his elbow propped up behind him drinking a frozen coke. He wasn't paying much attention to the looks the boys were getting but was in deep thought and the yells of his friends were drowned out by his music. He stood up and dusted his three-quarter jeans.

"I'm going back to the hotel."

"Eh?" Ikki stopped knuckling Agito. "Leaving already, fatty?"

Buccha shrugged the nickname off. He had already become accustomed to his _lovely_ friends insults and teasing. It just meant they loved him...It's a guy thing.

"Yeah, I just remembered that I had something to do."

"Well...okay," Ikki blinked. "Have fun." And he went back to what he was doing before- ah wait! The little bitch escaped!

Buccha sighed at his loud friends but resumed a serious face as he made his way back to the hotel. He hailed a taxi and asked to go back to the hotel and stared at the greenery that zoomed by outside the window. When they had arrived, he thanked the driver, paid him, and walked into the lobby. He looked around for a certain blonde and was disappointed when he couldn't see her.

"Hey big guy, what you doing here?"

Buccha whirled around in surprise and let out a breath as he realised who it was.

"Sophie! Hi!" he gasped.

"Oh sorry, did I scare ya? Sorry mate," she grinned and Buccha just had to smile. "So, where are all your friends?"

"Well actually, I just wasn't feeling up to all their uh, hyperactivity?" he chuckled nervously.

Sophie gave him an understanding look and nodded. "I know what you mean. Well, I shouldn't annoy you anymore and get to my lunch break!"

Buccha jumped and grabbed her wrist before she left. "C-Could I join you? For lunch?"

Sophie smiled. "I would love that."

The girls had just finished their round of shopping and were walking to the town centre when they saw the boys.

"Yahoo~!" Simca cried out as she ran towards them, waving her hand. She dropped her stuff and glomped Ikki. "Ikki-chan, I missed you!" she whined. "You should've came!"

Ikki's ego suddenly grew. "Really? I mean," he coughed, "of course. I am a man after-"

"Then you could've carried all our stuff!"

The whole town shook as the girls dropped their shopping bags and Ikki suddenly went pale - _note to self: NEVER get dragged shopping with these girls._

Emily gasped. "Girls, look! We haven't been to that store yet! I don't see how we could've missed it! I swear it wasn't there before."

Everyone turned to look at the store and they all had quite uh the different strong reactions.

"OHEMGEEYESLETSGOTHERE,COMEONGIRLS!" Simca squealed and dragged the other 5 girls to the store (how she did that, we shall never know).

Ikki and the pig melted into the ground and had steam coming out of their noses, "A swimwear store...HEAVEN!" and rushed off behind the girls in hopes of spying on chicks in bikinis. Agito and Kazu had quite the adorable expression, each picturing a certain girl with revealing swimwear but feeling _very_ awkward.

"A-ah, let's follow them," Kazu coughed. "I mean, otherwise it's just us two..."

"Ah," Agito muttered, "yeah. Fuck."

And so the two awkwardly (and adorably!) shuffled towards the store and tried to look invisible, which of course is impossible unfortunately to them. They paled as they entered. Rows and rows of the most creative swimwear they have ever seen filled the place with girls squealing and screaming to their friends from dressing rooms to find another size of a certain bikini. The place was crowded. Fuck crowded. And it was huge, how the hell the girls managed to miss the place, they will never know.

"U-Uh." The two boys sweatdropped. How the hell could they find their friends?

"Kazu-sama~" Emily popped in front of him out of nowhere. Kazu stared at her and knew he was fucked as soon as Emily's innocent smile turned into a large grin. "Help me find something!" she cried as she dragged him off by the wrist and kicked her arms and legs up in happiness. She yelled something out to Agito before the couple disappeared in a mass of girls. Agito sighed and went up the escalators guarded by a tall dark-skinned man who stared at him before letting him pass (_THE FUCK, THIS PLACE IS FUCKING HARDCORE_), heard a voice he recognised and walked into the dressing room on his far right. Most of the girls were already in dressing rooms (girl shopping powers) yelling out things girls normally whinge about when they try out something. He noticed Ikki and the pig gone and knew from years of friendship that they were out perving or hitting on the other girl customers. He noticed Kairi sitting on a seat within the quite spacious and open dressing rooms.

"Yo," he said casually and the girl sitting on the chair jumped up in surprise but as soon as she saw him, she grinned.

"Agito-kun! I'm glad you made it here okay! We told the guard that you were with us and to look out for you."

Agito gave her a funny look and she sighed.

"This store has three levels. First level is for people by themselves or with a few friends. Second level you can only access with a group of people for convenience (you get a dressing room per group hence the really open room and the massive wall mirror over there). Third level is for private or VIP but anyways, get it dummy?" Kairi smirked. Agito glared at her and sat on her. "Hey!"

"Your fault for calling me a dummy," he sneered to which Kairi pouted. It was silent for awhile and he was about to get off when she wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his back. He stiffened from the sudden contact but relaxed and let her warmth flow through him. His body suddenly felt tingly and it was a foreign feeling to him but he liked it. A door suddenly slammed open and he jumped off. Simca strutted out with a frilly pink with white polka dots bikini on and knocked on the other doors.

"GIRLS, GET THE HELLA OUTTA THERE AND ROCK THAT BODY AND SHOW ME WHATCHA GOT," she screamed at the top of her lungs and all three other girls in the changing cubicles walked out rubbing their ears. Simca and the other girls walked up the large wall mirror and stood there posing and talking about their current swimsuits on. Agito turned away from the sight of the four girls and felt very, VERY awkward.

Yayoi was in a bright red one piece which hitched up quite high along her thighs and had a small white bow sewn onto one of the straps (That's soo last season. But the bow's cute. I think it's good. Hun, find something else which shows your body more. KYA!); Ringo had a baby blue tankini (You need to spice it up, girl! It's cute, but too childish. Find something sexier, geez! But I don't know what, it's embarrassing! Fine then, girls we're picking something out for Ringo-chan. HUH?); and Kururu was in a white polka dot bikini with a matching skirt (Cute, but you need something else! You're too innocent! I agree! Me too~ SERIOUSLY?).

Then they all went back into their cubicles and went through the millions of bikinis they picked out to try on again. Agito coughed awkwardly at the scene that had just unfolded and Kairi laughed. He raised a brow.

"Why aren't you getting something?"

Kairi blushed. "A-ah, well..."

Suddenly, all the heads of the girls in the cubicles popped out.

"WHAT?"

"GO PICK SOMETHING OUT."

"GOGOGO!"

"DRAG AGITO-KUN ALONG WITH YOU."

"EHH?"

"OH FINE YAYOI. WE'LL PICK SOMETHING OUT FOR YOU."

And there was a second of silence as suddenly the girls had disappeared before there was a loud thump from one of the cubicles. The girls emerged from it and grinned to Kairi.

"All done. Now change into something you like!"

Kairi instantly knew why the cubicles were so large as she looked into hers. Agito's eyes just twitched - _The fuck...?_

"Agito, get out. No boys allowed. Go pick something for yourself ("Wait, but-") or find the other guys ("Those pervs? What-") JUST DON'T ANNOY US."

Agito paled and hurriedly walked out muttering 'yes m'am' and 'fuck, they're crazy' along with many other lines of disbelief.

The girls grinned and went back to their work and Simca's eyes instantly sparkled. "Let's go, girls," she smirked.

In the end, they decided to have their friends pick something for them which led to some very *cough* revealing swimwear bought...

(After a few hours of hardcore changing, the gang finally went back with either new clothes and smiles or sore backs and the reaper pitying them enough to not kill them.)

Kairi let out a sigh as she delicately slipped into the hot springs for the second time during their stay - _So nice..._ She relaxed and let herself go as she allowed the hot water gentle embrace her bare skin and enjoyed the peace and quiet. There was no one around, it was a quiet night, and she could enjoy it all to herself. Life was-

"YAHOOO~"

SPLASH.

Kairi grumbled as a tidal wave came and swept her out of the hot springs and onto the wooden floor. 'Life is a bitch,' she thought to herself. Emily laid happily in the soothing sensations of the hot springs (OF YOUTH!) as she sang to herself happily. She blinked as she saw Kairi.

"Ne, what are you doing lying on the floor?" she asked innocently.

Kairi huffed and hopped back in. "I felt like it," she pouted.

Emily blinked then laughed. "Huwahaha! You're a funny one, Kai-chan!"

The rest of the girls emerged from the change rooms with towels around their body and slipped in unknown to what just happened.

"So," Simca piped up (she was always leading the group of girls), "I say we hit the beach and rock our bodies and get a few guys, huh girls?" she winked.

"I agree, I agree!" Emily cheered.

The rest sweatdropped. "Emily-chan... you already have a boyfriend," Ringo said.

"Oh... I do?... Ahahaha! Funny that!" Emily sang.

They all sweatdropped once again. How much alcohol had she been drinking?

"I like that idea," Kururu chirped. "We should go tomorrow."

"Then tomorrow it is!" Simca cried. She cocked her head to the side and yelled over the wooden barrier separating the different gender facilities. "YOU HEAR THAT BOYS?" she yelled. "WE'RE GOING TO THE BEACH!"

There was a silence before a loud crash and a string of 'woots'.

"FUCK YES."

"PERVINESS RECHARGE."

"HOT GIRLS SCOUTING MODE."

"BE MORE EXCITED, YOU 12 YEAR OLD BOY WHO HAS YET TO HIT PUBERTY."

"FUCKING CROW."

"Ahh... Sorry, I'm not going."

...

"WHAAAAAT?"

Ringo yelled over to the other side, "Why not Buccha?"

"Ahh..."

Awkward silence.

...

Cough. "I'm going out with Sophie..."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"

...

ROFLOLMAO.

"You're kidding right?"

"Dude, how'd you do that, she's a fucking beat!"

"You sure..."

"Fuck!"

"I'm not kidding..."

...

"Oh my god, where's a counsellor when you need one..."

"... Thanks guys."

**TBC.**

**

* * *

**

**POLL:**

**You guys all know I barely update, and I was just wondering if you guys preferred if I updated more often but have shorter chapters (like I have for the past two chapters. They're about 6 pages long on Word) or write longer chapters (12 pages) which will take me longer to update. I'm pretty sure it's obvious what you guys would prefer, but I know that some people prefer long chapters over short chapters so, yeah! Just making sure everyone's down with it ^^**

**AND DONT FORGET TO COMMENT ON THE NEW WRITING STYLE! :D**

**Love you guys soso much for sticking up with this silly & awfully slow author,**

**xx  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Air gear: All's fair in love and war**

Chapter 8: The Beach

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauties!" Emily yelled into the room filled with her girl companions excluding Kairi. "Let's see what monsters arise from the dead today!" she laughed but screamed as she just managed to dodge an incoming pillow.

"Stuff you, Emily!" Ringo let out a muffled curse from the depths of her soft and fluffy pillow. She snuggled deeper into the blankets and hid her face. She sighed; it really was too nice to get up. Too bad Emily didn't think the same.

"EMILY!" she screeched as the warmth of her blanket was stripped from her and air nipped at her exposed skin. She curled herself into a ball in an attempt to keep warm and let out a string of loud curses at the evil laughing girl. Meanwhile, the others were just glad she hadn't-

"YOU GUYS AS WELL! UP YOU GUYS GET!"

_Fwip!_ went the blankets.

"EMILYYYYY!"

"BUWAHAHAHAHAH!"

"YOU'RE SO DEAD!"

"Says the monsters who just woke up!" Emily stood above them with her hands on her hips, grinning in victory. Their hair was tangled, their eyes had sleep in them, and they were barely even awake.

"EMILY!" the rest roared.

Emily laughed and danced around the room dodging the continuous fire of objects closest to the assaulters. She started to worry if they would ever run out of things.

* * *

Agito woke up with a surprise. A very _big_ surprise. He was not normally one to be surprised, but right then he figured he wouldn't mind being surprised a bit more.

"W-What the fuck are you wearing?" he squeaked, which was rather unmanly of him, he noted somewhere in his brain, but that was the least of his concerns. He didn't remember seeing her in such clothes before going to bed, but then he remembered he had plonked onto his bed half asleep before she even walked in.

"Hm?" Kairi turned around and he got a better view of what she was wearing. She wore a black lace overlay push-up bra and matching black lace thong, the string-thick sides starting high above her waist to dip down in a seductive manner, and if that wasn't revealing enough, the back was a see through material. It was attached to matching stockings. Agito was speechless, but he knew one thing: screw the hot springs, he needed a cold shower. And fast before anyone noticed – he wasn't one to brag, but he had to admit, with great pride obviously, that he was rather big. (And no, I'm aware in terms of height he is small. If you did not get that reference, I shake my head to you and suggest you stop reading this right this instance before I corrupt your all too innocent mind. Muwahaha...)

"Ah!" Kairi gasped as her mind comprehended the situation. Her face flushed a cute – Agito thought – pinkish hue and she turned around in embarrassment from the boy, forgetting she was exposing her bottom and her legs.

Agito's eyes travelled down her slender backside, taking in the small yet deep curves carved into her body, before arriving at her perfectly rounded arse – not entirely busty, yet not small enough to be ignored – and letting his eyes follow along the beautiful lines of her soft creamy legs. Before he realised it, every arc, every bend, every bow of the back of her body was engraved into his mind.

"U-um, if you're wondering why I'm wearing" – she scrunched up her nose – "_this_, then it's because all the girls got a dare the day we went shopping," she blushed and looked down timidly. "Each girl has to wear a set of lingerie the rest (mainly Simca) has picked out for her for the rest of the trip and," she lowered a voice to an embarrassed whisper, "I have to wear this. But the other boys don't know this, and you can't tell anyone, especially Kiki-chan!" she hurriedly added. It was more due to saving the embarrassment all over again but god knows what the protective older boy would do to the smaller boy if he found out that he had seen her in such revealing _'clothes'_, and Agito wasn't dumb to go run up and tell him either. He would have his egg roll chopped off!

He shuddered at the thought.

"Got it," he said stiffly and tried his best to avert his eyes from the practically naked body in front of him. He felt a growing pain below and to prevent losing his mind and attacking the scrumptious looking girl right then and there, he put his face into his hands and said, "Go get changed. I won't look. And hurry the fuck up, I need to take a shower."

All embarrassment gone, the girl hurried off in search for clothes and ran out of the room fully clothed but not before quickly muttering 'I'll see you later'.

The boy flung himself back onto the futon and groaned.

"Fuck."

* * *

An hour of attempts later and Emily finally managed to get the girls up. Kururu was the first followed by Yayoi, Ringo, and last but not least, the queen of sleep.

"Mmm~" Simca moaned as she stretched her hands into the air. Her pink hair fell in between the creases of her body and tickled her skin. "You're so mean, Emily-cha~n," she pouted. "Sleep is very important in keeping beautiful, you know, maybe that's why you're so ugly," she said innocently.

"BITCH!"

Simca laughed before examining the girls around her in their newly bought lingerie. She winked, "Looking good girls~"

Ringo, Yayoi and Kururu blushed and unconsciously shielded themselves with their hands in embarrassment while Emily grinned proudly and stood tall and confident.

"But of course, no boys could resist us eh?" she nudged Ringo with her hip and Ringo flushed at what the confident girl might be hinting at. She tugged at the short hem of her top and wished the ground could swallow her up.

Due to the sadistic ways of her friends, they decided that since she was the bustiest of them all, why not wear it loud and proud? Her breasts that made all girls jealous and their boyfriends eyes glued were hardly considered covered in her new set of lingerie. They gave her a . She was also worried that her breasts bulged over the edge in such a sultry manner that she began to question if these strange earthlings that allowed her to be such a slut around her were really her friends. They also chose to let her show her busty yet tight arse as she found them holding in their hands last night, at the moment of truth, that they were indeed holding something resembling a lace g-string attached to stockings. God help her.

Emily was faring slightly better than the girl – perhaps due to the fact that if they picked something out too 'girly' or revealing then she would reject wearing it, and it was a known fact that, when it came down to it, she was stubborner than a mule. She wasn't as busty as Ringo, or as undeveloped as Kairi, however she still had a lot of curves that punched 'pow' - either that or her first otherwise She was given a red strapless top which had a push up bra to give them that extra little push especially as it dipped down her breasts to tease. Instead of the usual shaped underwear, they gave her boyshorts, which complimented her boyish personality, however had a quite feminine side to them. The lacy material covered her at appropriate places, however at the sides, it thinned out into few strings zigzagging across to meet the other side. It was a nice twist to the stereotypically shaped boyish underwear as they knew deep down she also liked to have her girly moments at times.

Kururu was meeker than the loud girl and would explode in shyness if she found out her friends had chosen a set of lingerie similar to the effect of Ringo's even if her assets were still quite large for a petite girl like her. They decided on a simple light pink (girly yet cute) lacy nightgown. It ended just above her buttocks, showing the matching panties, and dipped further down her breasts and allowed them to slightly hang over the edge. The hem was decorated in baby blue lacing. Yayoi had also gotten a nightgown, however hers was slightly more revealing and had a sexier edge to it.

It was a deep rich purple, lighter purple feathers decorating the bottom of the gown. However, it ended higher than Kururu's due to her slightly more outgoing personality and bustier arse than normal, and so it barely passed down the matching underwear which pushed deep into her curves. Her breasts were only slightly bigger than Kairi's, and they made sure it had a push up bra to help her feel better about being surrounded by such largely equipped girls.

And then last but not least, was Simca. Simca was often regarded as the most outgoing, in terms of boys, out of them all and was sometimes even seen as a slut. However, they knew that deep down, she was just an awkward blushing high school girl just like them. So instead of giving her something to match that false slut impression, they gave her something white. It was a strapless bra with light pink trims and matching thong with, again, light pink trims and white see through material at the back. Attached, were white stockings with white lacing and ribbons at the top. While she complained for something more sexy and naughty, she was very happy her friends did not immediately pick the most revealing thing off the shelves but gave the time to think.

"Well," Ringo spoke out, sliding her stockings off her long legs, "we should probably change."

The other girls agreed, complimenting and teasing each other about their new clothes, or body with a lack of clothes.

"Hmm, that reminds me, I wonder how Kairi is doing," Emily blinked before a large smirk appeared on her face. _Details, details, details. I'll ask her all about her lovely experience this morning,_ she laughed evilly inside her mind.

After packing beach essentials, the girls stepped out of the room, locked the door, and made their way to the dining room. It was one thing they loved about the resort: free breakfast.

"Yahoo~" Simca waved at the boys already sitting around a large empty table. She bounced over and for a split second her smile dropped when she saw the pig and Kairi on either side of him. "Save us seats, we're going to go get some food, okay?" she sang as she linked arms with the girls behind her and pushed them towards the food table without another word. Emily took the time to sit next to Kazu and steal some of his food, for which Simca was grateful for.

"Girls, we still haven't done much about Kairi," Simca hissed. "We don't know anything about her."

Ringo shrugged. "If you ask me, I don't think -"

"Don't you care that she's always so clingy to Ikki-kun?" Simca butted in with a victorious sparkle in her eye. Kururu squeaked quietly next to her but stayed silent after that.

"I-I…" Ringo looked down defeated and Simca, knowing she won, turned to talk to the rest.

"I say we get Kevin-kun to help us," Simca continued.

"The hot American who picked us up earlier [in chapter 5]?" Ringo blinked. "Why him?"

"Because Kevin-kun seems to have found a little interest in our dear little Ikki-kun stealer," Simca winked. "He can pressure her into a corner and get her to reveal some things we wanna know~. Oh, plus if the plan works, Ikki-kun is free and Yayoi can have the short brat again."

Yayoi huffed at the insult directed towards her crush but stayed silent nevertheless.

Kururu was the first to voice her thoughts, "So when do we get Kevin-san?"

Simca smiled. "Not we. _I_."

"Hey, where did Simca go?" Ikki asked with a mouth full of pancakes. Ringo shrugged and replied, 'Forgot something.' Ikki shrugged - _Girls_ - and went back to stuffing his mouth, Kairi scolding him.

Yayoi suddenly noticed something. "Where's Agito?"

"Here."

Agito stalked out with an annoyed expression on his face before glancing at Kairi and venturing to take a seat next to Kazu, opposite the table, preventing Emily from sitting next to him.

"Hey, break up the love birds why don't you!" Ikki shouted with his mouth still full of food. Kazu grumbled something under his breath about suffocating from a headlock by Emily.

"Kiki-chan, don't talk with your mouth full!" Kairi whispered with a frown on her face before setting down her fork and picking up her plates. "Um, I'm done eating breakfast. I still need to go back to the room and get my stuff for the beach. Agito-kun" - she glanced at him - "can sit here. See you there," she quickly muttered before hurrying off to put her dishes away.

Ikki watched her before turning to Agito who was currently staring at the suddenly rather interesting smiley eggs staring up at him. He tensed as he felt the older boy's stare on him and knew he had suspicions about him.

"Well, you heard her," Ikki gruffed, going back to his food, "sit here."

Agito nodded knowing he couldn't argue and picked up his dish, sat down next to him, and ate without saying another word.

Yayoi happily took her place next to the boy and tried to make conversation before stopping in failure and eating her food in mostly silence for the rest of the meal.

After breakfast and agreeing to go get ready to go to the beach before meeting up in half an hour, Agito walked in on a flustered Kairi sitting on the ground in denim shorts.

"Kairi-chan?" he said hesitantly.

Kairi perked up at the sound of her name and her face flooded with relief when she saw him. "Agito-kun! Um, can you help me tie this?" she stumbled over towards him with her hands behind her back and turned around. Agito took the bikini strings from her hands and mumbled a low 'okay' before tying it.

Kairi stood as still as she could, aware of the boy's every movement. Heat radiated off him from behind her and she nearly gasped when she felt his hot breath tickle the very surface of her neck. She wrapped her arms around her, shuddered and whimpered.

"Kairi?" Agito asked in an unsure voice.

"A-ah, thank you," Kairi said quickly as she turned around and bowed before running and picking up a white tank lying on her beach bag. "I'll see you outside," she muttered and she ran off.

Agito ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He turned to look at the quiet room.

"Now to find my boardies," he said to no one.

He found them quite awhile later, at the bottom of his suitcase, and grabbed a towel and his thongs before leaving the room. He met up with the rest of the gang in the reception room and was surprised to see only Ikki.

"Ahh, fucking brat! What took ya so long, needed mummy's help getting dressed huh boy?" Ikki yelled. "Hurry up, the bus is about to leave!"

Agito growled under his breath and ran after the boy. They arrived at a bus stop a hundred metres or so from the resort and quickly hopped on. Just before the doors nearly closed, a smooth voice cut in.

"Ah, please don't forget me," Kevin smiled at the bus driver as he stopped the doors closing with his hands.

"Ehh, why are you here Kevin-kun?" Kairi asked.

"I wanted to see you, lovely," he grinned as he squished up next to her. Agito grumbled as he was shoved into the window and mentally noted to smash a volleyball into the blonde's face.

"Oi, oi! Brat, you nearly made us miss the bus," Ikki shouted from the seat behind before putting him into a headlock. "You're gonna go down in volleyball!"

"Fuck! Piss off!" Agito growled before muttering 'Screw this' and changing into Akito.

Akito blinked before turning around to hug the unsuspecting crow. "Yaay, hug me Ikki-chan~" he chirped happily.

"Hell no!"

Kevin's eyebrow twitched slightly as his chat with Kairi was interrupted when she apologized before scolding the loud boys for making such a racket. He started to join in to telling her to just leave them be, but resorted to shouting when even he couldn't hear himself. Elders gave them wary looks from the back of the bus.

_Someone save us, please…!_

* * *

After a long walk (the bus driver couldn't take the loud kids anymore and the group, being completely oblivious of their loudness, thought that it was a common thing to kick people off miles before their destination), the group was awarded with the beautiful scenery of the beach. Warm, soft sand dug into their sore feet and the scent of salty water rushed into their noses.

"Mm~ it feels so good~" Simca moaned as she wriggled her toes within the warm sand.

"Wow, we're gaining a lot of stares," Bucca pointed out.

She scoffed. "Puh-lease. That ain't gaining stares. This is gaining stares."

And at once, she and the rest of the girls stripped off their clothes to reveal their bodies clad in only bathers.

Kazu slapped his face and thought the ocean would be filled with blood by the time they even got to go in considering all the blood noses they were getting. Ah shit… what's this running down his nose?

Simca was the first to run to the ocean, smooth long legs bared due to the bikini bottoms. She wore a turquoise bandeau top with a ring to connect the bathers and the strap, showing a part of her large breasts. Following her, was Emily burning with enthusiasm and cheering for the cool water in a green, white, and brown striped and twisted bandeau, without the straps, and brown bikini shorts. Kairi wasn't as enthusiastic as them, much like Ringo however she decided to urge the smaller girl on in an attempt to pump up self-confidence. As Kairi wasn't as busty as the others, she got away with wearing a tiny triangle bikini top and tiny bikini bottoms connected by a thin piece of string without being called too much of a slut but revealing lots of skin at the same time. Ringo on the other hand wore a tri bikini that matched her hair. Whilst she wasn't one to be revealing, her bikini barely covered her up she noticed grimly.

…And trailing much further behind, lacking in enthusiasm and confidence were Kururu in a light pink tri bikini and a frilly skirted bottom and Yayoi in a purple halter with a white belted bottoms.

The pig rushed after them without stripping yelling something along the lines of examining the ritual for the Water Spirit in its place.

The Water Spirit didn't seem particularly happy so the rest standing on shore could hear girly screams and the cries of pain from the pig as he was kicked by the waves back onto shore. They decided to ignore the pig and turned away to set their things down and take off their shirts.

"Yo."

Kairi squealed as she felt the smooth skin of someone behind her and span around in surprise. Agito smirked and Kairi swore she saw lights sparkling around him - or maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks and the sun reflecting on the water?

She realised that he wasn't wearing a shirt and her eyes automatically flicked down to look at his chest. He was a scrawny bitch, that was for sure, but he had muscles. It wasn't like the body builders on TV whose pecs were bigger than her boobs (that disturbs her, how could men who weren't fat have bigger boobs than her?), but they were rock hard and defined and, fuck did she want to touch them to see if they were real.

"Like what you see?" Agito whispered into her ear huskily, leaning in closer. Kairi shivered and placed her hands on his chest to push him away but her body didn't listen. His muscles rippled underneath her hand and she slowly trailed them up and down.

"Kairi-chan! I brought a beach ball and it would make my day if you came and joined our game," Kevin interrupted with a smile.

Agito glared at him before smirking. "Okay, let's play white boy," and he took the ball off him, threw it up into the air before smashing it into the crow's head ("THE _FUCK?_ WHO WAS THAT?").

"I think you'll be surprised at how good us Americans are. That is, if you haven't ran off to cry to your mom," Kevin replied smoothly.

Agito growled and his feral instincts took over.

Kairi sighed to herself and went to join Ringo lying on the sand.

"Hi Ringo-chan," she smiled as she plunked herself down onto her towel. She rolled onto her belly and put her head on her arms.

Ringo was surprised and jumped up before giving her a small smile in return. "Hi," she replied meekly.

The two lay in silence, both on their bellies watching the others play with the beach ball in the water before Kairi broke the silence.

"Do you care about Kiki-chan?"

"W-what?" Ringo squeaked. "I-I-I-!"

"You've been looking at him for the past ten minutes," Kairi bluntly pointed out. "Do you like him?"

"I-I…" Ringo's face flushed darker than her hair and she thought for a second. "Yeah," she said softly with a small smile on her face as she watched the lovable idiot yell at Agito for the millionth time today, "I do."

Kairi stared at her for awhile before going back to watching the others, "Ehh, is that so… You know," she continued as she stood up and walked in front of her, "you guys are cute." And then she ran off.

Ringo laid there watching the smaller girl splashing into Ikki before he picked her up and threw her deeper into the ocean yelling at her loudly. She blushed and hid her face into her arms, but wore a large smile. A sudden warm feeling filled her chest and she felt she would be accepted as Ikki's girlfriend.

* * *

When lunch arrived, the girls ate quickly before heading back into the cool water whilst the boys continued to pig out on the mountain of food they bought – minus Kazu and Emily.

"I'm so glad we came to the beach," Kururu smiled with sparkles in her eyes. "I haven't been since I was a little girl."

Ringo put her arm around her and Simca, the two closest people, and grinned as she swayed them side to side, "Let's come again next summer holidays!"

Simca grinned and hugged her in excitement and agreement while Yayoi laughed. Kairi stood watching the others with a smile.

"Hey," Simca smiled devilishly. "I wonder how Kazu and Emily-chan are doing~"

There was a moment of silence whilst Simca tried to impersonate what they would be doing and the group erupted in giggles.

"Ouch!" Emily bit back a cry as Kazu's cool hand made its way over her red shoulder.

Kazu scoffed. "Idiot. This is what you get for not putting sunscreen on before going into the water. You do know light reflects in water right? Geez," he sighed irritatedly as he continued to rub sunscreen over the girls back.

"I forgot!" Emily bit back. She calmed down. "I was just so excited, you know...To be at the beach again with all our friends," she added quietly with a small smile.

Kazu looked up without stopping his job before averting his eyes back to her red back. Geez, this girl!

"Alright, done," he said, breaking the silence. "Now the front..." he trailed off awkwardly as he realised that girls had parts on their chest that they didn't like getting touched so casually – yes, amazing amirite?

Emily must have caught on because she had whipped around with a red face before snatching the sunscreen and applying it to her chest herself. "I can do it myself," she muttered embarrassedly.

Kazu nodded with a blush on his face. Then he noticed. He watched as her hands rubbed around her chest and, more precisely, her breasts. He knew they weren't as large as Ringo's or Simca's, but hers were pretty decent sized to make anyone horny. He quickly averted his eyes before his hormones got the best of him but his face grew a brighter red when he felt hands rubbing the lotion on his bare chest.

"Stay still will you!" Emily scolded. There was silence as Kazu recovered from his shock. "You might also get burn, too..." she trailed off with a blush on her face. Kazu stared at her, but smiled gently as he found her current expression adorable.

It was a nice sensation, he thought to himself, even if her hands were rough and calloused. He knew she wasn't the perfect princess or girlfriend, but she was a girl who deeply loved her friends and family, had a great sense of faith and determination, and was true to herself and hadn't changed herself to be more girly throughout their whole relationship.

"Ne..."

"Hm?" Emily looked up and only saw Kazu's intense gaze before she was swept into his arms. "O-Oi! What are you doing? Let go of me, you!"

Kazu dug his face into her neck. "Shut up," he muttered. "Can't I hug my girlfriend?"

Emily's face softened before she wrapped her arms around his neck.

* * *

"YOOOSH!" Ikki cheered. "IT'S TIME FOR THE GIRLS VOLLEYBALL COMPETITION!"

Kazu, Akito and the pig cheered along (with different intentions in mind, apart form Akito of course, he's too innocent really). Kevin nodded in agreement with the usual smile on his face.

"Haah? Why only the girls?" Ringo gave him a funny stare.

"O-oh, well," Ikki scratched his head, mind thinking quickly.

"It's because we already had one!" Kazu pointed out whilst Ikki nodded quickly in response.

"Y-Yeah! So now it's only fair if you guys have one for yourselves!" Ikki nodded, eyes closed deep in thought with his hand making a "v" shape under his chin - clearly he was trying to be wise - not that he could fool anyone.

"Sounds like fun! Don't you think Ringo-chaan?" Simca sang.

"O-Okay then," Ringo said hesitantly.

Yayoi, Kururu and Kairi just stood at the back not sure what to add into the conversation. They all jumped as Emily started trying to pump them up with some spirit and enthusiasm. Didn't exactly work.

"So anyways," Ikki interrupted with a gleam in his eyes," we have to make the pairings."

"Simca and Ringo can go together," the pig nodded wisely.

"And Emily and Kururu can go together," Kazu added.

"That leaves…" The three boys turned with dark stares at Kairi and Yayoi. "Those two together…"

"E-Eh?" Yayoi squeaked. Her first reaction was why they were sending them dark glares – no, they weren't looking at their faces...It was more like further down...But her second was to greatly refuse to be teamed up with a love rival.

"Something wrong?"

"U-Um…shouldn't someone like Emily who knows Kairi-chan better go with her?" she asked nervously.

"Absolutely not!" the pig shook his head furiously. He made a 'x' with his arms and the girls wondered why he so greatly objected.

"What he means is that you two can get to know one another!" Ikki pointed accusingly at them. When Yayoi was about to open her mouth to refuse, he added, "That is all!"

Yayoi sighed in defeatand glanced at Kairi who was smiling shyly at her.

"A-Ah, Yayoi-chan, let's do our best ne?" she put out her hand.

Yayoi stared at it for awhile before hesitantly shaking it. "A-Ah."

"And let the competition begin!"

* * *

Before anything new could be said, Kazu quickly pulled Ikki and the pig away from the group in a discreet manner to discuss the competition

"Hey Ikki, how are we actually going to structure this tournament?" Kazu whispered.

"Ah…."Ikki mused.

…

"Haven't thought that far."

Kazu felt like tearing his hair out. _Perfect plan to see Emily is ruined!_

"I got it," the pig smirked with an evil gleam in his eye. Ikki and Kazu neared him to listen it.

* * *

"Kai~ri-cha~n!" Akito chirped.

"Nani, Akito-kun?" the small girl smiled.

"Have you ever played before?" he pouted. "Do you even know how to play?"

"Daijoubu," she waved her hand, "I wasn't totally isolated from the world… back at that place…" A frown darkened her face as memories flooded back.

Akito blinked before hugging her tightly. "Ne, Kai-chan," he said softly." Kairi didn't even register what had happened before he pulled away and tugged her hand towards the volleyball net. "Come on, come on! They might yell at us for being late!" he chirped.

Yayoi had seen the little exchange between the two and even though she didn't personally feel attraction towards the cheerier personality, she couldn't help but feel a slight tug of jealousy when she saw the boy with the same body hug the small girl.

"Okay!" the pig grubbed, "this is how the competition will go! Team Emily and Kururu will go straight to the final whilst Teams Simca and Ringo and Yayoi and Kairi battle it out in the semifinal!"

"Eeh! That hardly seems fair!" RIngo pouted.

"All's fair in love and war," the pig stuck his nose in the air. "Now, hurry up! Get on with the game! Kazu will be umpiring both games!"

"Players get to the court!" Kazu announced from the tall umpiring chair. Team Simca and Ringo to serve."

"Eh? What about coin toss?" Yayoi frowned.

"Don't argue with the umpire," Kazu replied.

"Tch," Yayoi muttered under her breath.

"Do you want to serve first or…?" Ringo asked her teammate.

"You can serve~" SImca waved her hand as she headed to the front of the court. "I haven't played this game in a~ges! Let's see how much I remember!" she smiled giving a wink to passing boys who gave two reactions. Reaction A was to drool over her hotness, Reaction B on the other hand was to just faint.

Kazu blew his whistle and Ringo went to serve. She threw the ball up into the air before crashing her hand down on it in one smooth movement. Of course, one would expect her breasts to jiggle and bounce around as this happened.

"Leave it!" Yayoi barked. It flew pass her and Kairi and she smiled as it went out.

"One-nil," Kazu said from the chair.

"Haaah?" Yayoi cried out in disbelief. "That was obviously out! Couldn't you see? Or are you still blind even from that chair?"

"It was out," he nonchalantly replied, rushing his name through his hair.

"Even I saw it too! It was out!" Kairi cried out.

"Two-love," Kazu looked away. "Don't argue with the umpire. Ringo's serve."

"What?" Kairi sighed in exasperation.

"Don't worry about it, Kairi-chan!" Kevin yelled from the sidelines. "You can do it! I know you can!"

Akito was silent, paying attention to Agito's reaction before smiling and also cheering for Kairi.

Emily from the sidelines frowned in thought. She knew Kazu had better eyes than that, no matter how fast the ball was.

_What__is__going__on__, __Kazu__-__sama__?_

Watching from within Akito, Agito was silent before scoffing.

_Che__._

_Nani__?_ Akito replied.

Agito was quiet again. Akito decided to ignore him and focus back on the game.

"Yaay, we're winning Ringo-chan~" Simca cheered happily, hugging the pink headed's arm, her boobs pushing against them and bouncing along with her small hops of joy. Ikki and the pig silently took notice of this as their eyes scrunched up.

"E-Eh? Ah…we are," she smiled.

Kazu blew the whistle and signalled for her to serve the ball again. She once again served the ball with the same force as before, only this time the ball was in the court and returned by a dig from Yayoi.

"Heh! How's that?" she smirked.

The rally continued on for a while. Ikki and the pig stood at the sidelines pretending to watch as the ball flew over the net as the girls would dig, set, or spike it over. Whenever it was on Kairi's and Yayoi's side, they had a disappointed look on their face, whilst when it was on the other girls' side, a little devil kept tugging at their lips to smile as they watched in bliss as the large assets of the girls would bounce up and down whenever they ran or hit the ball.

"You are so smart, Ikki," the pig commented.

"Well, I can't take all the credit," he smirked. "Just wait for the next game."

The two evilly chortled (love that word) quietly to themselves.

"Two-one," Kazu announced as Simca had dived but failed to get the ball. Yayoi and Kairi cheered and hi-fived each other.

"I-Itai," SImca moaned as she felt the burn from the friction with the sand. She massaged her chest and stomach.

"Are you okay?" Ringo asked with a hand stretched out.

"Of course, Ringo-chan!" Simca chirped as she took the outstretched hand. Ringo smiled at the girl.

"Team Kairi and Yayoi to serve," Kazu blankly stated before throwing to the ball over.

"Ne, Kairi," Yayoi shifted nervously, "want to serve?" Whilst she knew she was alright at digging and setting, she knew she failed at serving. Her eyes flickered to Akito and ultimately Agito. She didn't want him to see her stuff up and look like a retard.

"Hmm, okay," Kairi mused, "I've never served before. Let's see if I can do it…"

Whistle.

Smack.

…

"E-EH?" everyone cried out in disbelief as the ball had managed to fly past Ringo and Simca at an unusual speed for a small girl like her. Yayoi's mouth was hanging open in shock of her partner's strength.

Kazu quickly composed himself and coughed. "Two all."

The ball was returned to Kairi and she had served in, acing every shot until the score was six-two and Kazu called the ball out.

"Nani?" Yayoi gasped. "That was in! And you know it was!"

Kairi wrung her hands and nodded. She felt a bit happy (and quite frankly, shocked) that she had managed to ace a few shots, but getting out all of a sudden didn't make her feel good.

"Pretty sure that was in, Kazu-san," Kevin blinked.

Ringo and Simca also added in, in good sportsmanship and friendship, that it was in.

"Umpire's call," Kazu muttered. "Simca to serve."

Emily visibly frowned and felt bitter disappointment in the boy she admired.

The game carried on, with Team Simca and Ringo winning by quite a large margin throughout the entire game before they won.

"Ringo-chan! Ringo-chan! We won, we won!" SImca cheered as she hugged Ringo and they bounced up and down. Ikki and the pig stared intently with shifty eyes on their breasts as they squished together.

_This is better than porn!_

"Tch," Yayoi muttered. Kairi came up from behind and put her hand to her shoulder.

"Ne, you played great, Yayoi-chan," she smiled, faltering in obvious disappointment. "We did...pretty good…"

"Mm," Yayoi acknowledged bitterly. "You too, Kairi-chan," she returned the same disappointed smile.

Agito had switched out and had come to stand next Kairi. "Oi, let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry," he made up. He wasn't dumb and knew exactly what the boys were playing at. He figured that they would get their punishment one way or another – _The girls aren't dumb_ – and thought it would be best to take it off the girl's mind.

Kairi frowned. "But you just ate, Agito-kun!" she exclaimed with a small hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Che, I'm a growing boy, what can I say," he smirked as he started to walk away.

Kairi followed him, with a light bounce in her steps and she poked her tongue at him. "Lol jokes, you're still a skinny little bitch!"

Agito smirk grew wider as he growled and neared her in fake anger. "I'm going to get you for that!" he growled as his arm naturally made it's way around her waist, pulling her closer to him to shake his forehead upon her own.

"I think I'm also feeling hungry, I might join you guys," Kevin smiled, popping out of no where and interrupting the two. Agito's arm quickly retracted as he glared at the blonde who seemed unfazed. Kairi didn't seem to notice at all.

Yayoi stood watching helplessly as they walked away feeling hurt in her chest. Behind her, Emily was storming up to the defeated blonde climbing down the umpire's chair.

"What was that?" she growled as she poked him none too lightly.

Kazu turned his head away. "Nothing," he said cooly.

"Half of the shots you called out were in! And you know that better than anyone else here!" Emily pointed her finger at him. "What were you thinking? Those two poor girls feel horrible now!"

"I told you," he replied, still not meeting her eyes, as he pushed her accusing hand away. "Nothing."

Emily fumed before storming off to her side of the court.

Kazu turned to Ikki and the pig. "Hey, I'm not going to umpire the next game," he yelled out. "I'm going to get something to drink."

"Eh? Ah… okay then, have fun Kazu…" Ikki snapped out of his perverted daydream. "Ah, Yayoi, you're not doing anything right? You can umpire can't you?"

"Huh? Ah…yeah…" the brown haired girl jumped as she hastily made her way to the umpire chair.

Kazu sighed as his shoulders suddenly felt heavy and walked away.

_I__ didn__'__t __think __this __plan __would __involve __this__… __Dammit__, __what __the __fuck__ was __I __doing__? __Now __Emily__'__s __mad__ at __me __and__ I__ don__'__t __even __have __the __guts __to __watch__ her __play __anymore__…_

Meanwhile, Ikki and the pig smiled with content looks on their faces as the game started.

"This is heaven," the pig sighed. "Big breasts bouncing up and down… And great long legs too no matter where the ball goes."

"Yeah," Ikki agreed with the same expression. He paused when he realised after awhile that his eyes were mainly focused on Ringo. He blinked as he took in the way her round large breasts jiggled and bounced (almost mocking him) as she ran around the court and the way it squished against her arms when she put her arms together in front of her for a dig; the way her smooth long legs graceful ran from one side of the court to the other and her tight ass still swaying sexily a little even when running. But more importantly, how her cheeks reddened and her glossy full lips pouted as she breathed heavily, and the way her eyes shone with intent on winning, lighting up her beautifully carved face.

He shook his head and tried to suppress his thoughts as he felt himself getting turned on.

_FUCK__._

"Mine!" Simca and Ringo called out at the same time as they ran towards the ball. It was too late before they realised and bumped into each other - boobs first.

"A-Ah!" they both moaned on the ground. "Itai!"

Simca was on her back with her knees up and rubbing against another in pain as she arched her back and cupped her hands around her sore breasts. Ringo on the other hand was on her knees leaning forward onto her forehead, hands massaging her breasts with her ass high in the air. Her legs were split apart giving Ikki a nice view of that rounded ass barely covered in her thin bikini bottoms and felt his eyes travel further down to...

"HOHOHO!" the pig cried as he couldn't contain it any longer. "I'M FEELING SO TURNED ON. YEAH BABY!"

Emily and, soon after, the girls realised that they were being perved on and Emily took the initiative to slap the boys. Simca and Ringo couldn't care less as their breasts hurt too much from the impact of the collision. Yayoi's face reddened as she realised why she and Kairi were put together (come on, pretty obvious yeah?) and huffed in fury before joining Kururu to help the girls on the ground. Emily stalked off to find Kazu and interrogate him on this matter.

Ikki cursed with his head in his hands as a pink haired girl (Ringo to clarify, not Kururu - what colour hair does she even have? I'm confused) kept popping up in his head.

_Shit__. __What__ the__ fuck __is __going__ on__?_

* * *

"You know Agito-san, I'm surprised you aren't actually eating considering we came all the way here so you could get some food," Kevin smiled mockingly.

"I lost my appetite, Kevin-_san_," the boy growled in mock reply.

"Hmm, that's no good. You have to grow up to be big and strong," Kevin smirked as he knew he had hit a nerve. He decided to turn it up a little. "Like me."

A vein appeared on Agito's forehead as his fists shook . "Hey white boy," he growled, "why don't you get Kairi and yourself a drink? I'm surprised you're not as much of a gentlemen as I thought you were."

"Hmm," Keivn mused. "I should do that. Wait here at this table while I go get drinks," he winked at Kairi. Agito felt the need to puke and pretended to, but the blond kept his eyes on the girl.

Kairi smiled back and replied a simply 'ok'. When the blonde boy had disappeared, Agito grabbed her hand and pulled her from her chair.

"Quick, let's go," he muttered under his breath, "before the fucker realises."

Kairi blinked and was surprised at first before she giggled and placed a tighter hold on the boy's hand as she hurriedly walked closer to him. They had managed to escape the beach cafe and had decided to tickle each other, resulting in Agito running away from her along the beach. When he decided they were far enough from the blonde, he ran into the water and smirked back mockingly at her. She responded by running after him in the water but fell as the sand suddenly disappeared from under her feet. She swam back up to the surface and pouted at the amused Agito.

"Oi, it's too deep," she whined. "I can't catch you now because you're a faster swimmer."

Agito smirked and shook his head like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But of course, you were going to tickle me."

Kairi didn't respond but her pout deepened further as she tried to swim her way out to the blue haired boy a few metres in front of her, who's smirk started to fade when he began to see less and less of her black hair bobbing along the water.

"O-Oi! Fuck!"

Kairi knew that she wasn't a great swimmer and couldn't swim very well in deep water due to being contained in her previous 'home' but she fought the waves as she tried to swim to the boy. It was when she felt her strokes and kicks become useless and she started being submerged that she begin to panic. A warm warm suddenly wrapped around her thin waist she felt herself being pulled up back to surface. She coughed and blinked her eyes. Agito rested his forehead on hers and stared deeply into her eyes.

"Stupid."

Kairi laughed weakly. "Shut up. Just get me back to shallow water."

He was silent for awhile. "No."

"What?" Kairi frowned.

"I like this," he smirked playfully as she realised what he meant. She pouted before she gave in and wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs loosely around his body. "That's better," he laughed.

She smiled before closing her eyes. The sun on her skin, the cool water splashing against her, and not to mention the God sent boy in front of her."It's nice isn't it, Agito-kun?" She felt his chest rumble as he grunted in agreement. His naked chest felt very hot yet cool against her skin and she allowed one hand to slid away from his neck to against his hard abs. He didn't mind it honestly when she did that, in fact, he loved it. He craved her touch and being half naked just made his skin feel on fire. His head felt suddenly heavy and he rested it against her bare shoulder, breathing in her skin. He couldn't quite put his finger on what she smelt like, but it was good - intoxicating.

She too had decided to smell him and felt tingles all over her body. It was masculine, in a rough boyish sense, and she wanted more. After awhile though, she reluctantly started to pull away and she felt the boy groan as she called his name.

"What?" his muffled voice from being pressed against her skin.

"We have to get out," she giggled, "otherwise we're going to get pruny like old married couples. "

Agito scoffed, feeling heat seeping up to his face at her comment. "Che. I don't want to go back to them, they're too noisy."

She smiled and felt him tug her back when she tried to push him away. "Agito-kun?…"

"Hold on," he muttered before lifting his head and meeting her eyes. "You're horrible," he glared before picking her up in his arms bridal style and carrying her out of the water.

"W-What are you doing?" Kairi blushed.

"It's windy, you're acting as my windshield," he smirked with his lame excuse.

She scoffed before she nuzzled her head into the gap of his collarbone and tightened her grip around his neck. "Don't drop me." Her voice sounded very quiet from being muffled out but her still heard her.

He smirked. "Don't worry, I won't."

**TBC...**

Hey! Sorry for the long wait! I had half of this sitting on my computer and I just couldn't get into the mood to write the other half - though I managed to when I tried to pull an all nighter sitting on the couch and listening to jazz music before going to sleep at 7am.

From now on, all the chapters will be shorter than this for faster updates (hopefully) - this is 8 pages on word. Before I used to write 12. Eesh.

**ATTENTION RESONANCE OF FATE FANS.**

On the same day I finished writing this chapter, I wrote a short RoF fic. Please do check it out! I know it may not be the best or to everyone's liking but there aren't many RoF fics on this site so I'm hoping that it'll expand one day and this is just a contribution I'm making.

You can visit it by going to my profile and clicking on it - it's called _Jazz_. Lame title, I know.


	9. Chapter 9

**Really sorry for the long wait! But like I promised a reader, I would get it up before school started and I did! Yaay!**

**There probably won't be an update for awhile since this is my last year of school and I need to really concentrate to get a high end of year mark. Maybe half way through the year I'll release a chapter if we're lucky~**

**Really hope you enjoy this chapter, I actually wrote a full plan for this (it was 3 pages long, golly! Which I admit that I didn't always follow...) and please like always drop a review of your thoughts of it :) There's less fluff in this chapter because it's basically leading up to the climax (maybe. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do next D:)**

_Special kudos and shout out to **Alice4.0**! She has been an inspiring reader, helping me overcome my writers block to be able to plan and write this chapter (perhaps one of my longest chapter!) I credit her for the idea of Ringo having to sleep in some other room (for example, with the boys) which makes Ikki angry and also for a jealous Emily (although I changed the case of the jealousy, it still stems from the same base: Kazu-samaa!). Sorry I didn't get to use your first idea Alice4.0! I only now realised I should've put it in somewhere in this chapter to add to the growing closeness of a certain pairing! But thank you never the less. :)_

**ALSO SINCE THIS STORY WAS STARTED A LONG TIME AGO BEFORE MANY RECENT CHAPTERS OF AIR GEAR CAME OUT, PLEASE IGNORE EVERYTHING THAT DOESN'T FOLLOW SUIT WITH THE MANGA/ANIME.**

**ie. Kururu as a character is stronger in recent manga chapters however I still portray her as docile, gentle, and meek; most recent couple revealed in the manga (not spoiling anything!) are still not together in this fic; and my characterisation is probably reallyreally off and over exaggerated like Simca! Also I have no bloody clue what Kanon is like zzz.**

**Just looking back the genre I set, I'm not sure if it should be classified as Drama/Romance rather than Humour/Romance. Things are starting to get heated up, there's less humour and I'm not as dorky as I was when I first started writing this! (Okay, I lie. I'm still dorky as ever just my sense of humour is horrible and I'm now down-right lame. Not saying that I ever wasn't, but you know...)**

**Also considering changing the summary because I'm not really sticking with the whole 'Kai-chan' case thing anymore \;A;/**

**I've also opted for horizontal line breaks instead of the previous '-' because it looks cleaner and makes one of the scenes in this chapter a bit easier to understand/read.**

**Enough of that;**

**ENJOY!**

**xKairix**

**P.S. FANFICTION(dot)NET PLEASE CONSIDER FIXING THE PROBLEM OF DISAPPEARING HORIZONTAL LINES WHEN UPLOADING A WORD DOCUMENT. ;A;**

* * *

**Air Gear: All's Fair in Love and War**

Chapter 9: The Beginning of War

"Hello Kairi," Kevin smiled. "I don't remember seeing you back at the table after I went to get us drinks at the beach yesterday."

Kairi smiled nervously. "Ah… Gomen, I –"

" – was with me."Agito came up from behind Kairi and wrapped a possessive arm around her. "Now if you don't mind white boy, we've got some shopping to do," he scoffed.

Kevin's eyes brightened up as he clapped his hands. "Wonderful! I was thinking of going shopping as well! Perhaps I'll join you guys, if it's not a bother to you," he directed at Kairi.

"It's a _very_ big bother," Agito muttered under his breath. Kairi was too nice to reject him so she smiled and shook her head. Agito felt like slapping the girl and screaming at her lack of brain cells. _WHY? DON'T ENCOURAGE THE FUCKER._

"_Anyway_, we're going to go _change now_," he said suggestively. "See ya white boy. Don't get lost with all the lack of brain cells!" He span on his heels and pushed Kairi along.

Kairi turned around and waved at the blonde behind. "Bye!"

This irritated Agito.

"Can you not?" he stopped them in front of their door with narrowed eyes.

"Huh?"

"Argh!" Agito tugged at his hair and stormed into their room, slamming the door in her shocked face. He opened it again with a glare and stuck his head out. "By the way, you're going to have to wait outside while I change," he snapped before promptly slamming the door once again. He turned around and stared at the empty room. He yelled and kicked his suitcase in frustration, only to realise it was a pretty stupid thing to do because, damn, those things are hard.

_That's what she said._

"ARGHHHHHH!"

Akito laughed inside his head and Agito felt like today was _not_ his day. At all. Period.

_Stupid fucking white boy, stupid (Okay, maybe not) fucking Kai-chan (Hmm, fucking her wouldn't be too bad…FUCK!)._

"Shut up!" he snarled to the giggling boy. Akito stopped before pouting.

_Ne, Agitoooooo? Don't you think you were too harsh on Kai-chaan? Stop taking your anger out on her~! Kai-chan is an innocent bystander~! Innocent~!_

"Don't tell me what to do!" Agito hissed, throwing his suitcase open and glaring at its contents which stared back innocently at him. Speaking of innocent, Akito called Kai-chan 'innocent' and white boy was probably trying to defile her. He scowled as his thoughts once again drifted to the girl and stormed to the bathroom.

_I need a shower to cool off…FUCK!_

* * *

"Mou, Agito-kun is taking too long!" Kairi huffed. "And he complains that I take too long… Geez! What a hypocrite! I'll just get a spare key from the reception; it'll be his fault if I walk on him undressed because it's his fault for being so slow! Ah… Agito-kun undressed…"

…

"Snap out of it!" Kairi hit herself on the head before huffing angrily. "Whatever! Who wants to look any him anyway?"

…

_Me…_

Kairi messed up her hair in frustration. "Geez! No more thinking about him!" She paused. "I wonder if he's still mad at me… Actually, why _was_ he mad at me? I didn't do anything wrong! Hmph!...But still…Ahh, this is too confusing…"

"Miss? Excuse me miss? Can I help you? Excuse me?"

Kairi jumped in surprised and realised that her feet had dragged her over to the reception while she had been arguing with herself. They probably also heard her talking to herself – ahh, this wasn't good.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I – "

Kairi suddenly felt faint and a great tightness in her chest and stomach. She stumbled and was luckily caught by Sophie who was walking pass.

"Shit! Are you okay?" she asked.

Kairi felt the pain and dizziness start to fade. "Y-Yeah, sorry," she smiled weakly. "I'm fine now," she said, getting to her legs.

Sophie watched on with a concerned gaze but said nothing.

After getting a spare key, Kairi walked back to the room and opened it. "Excuse me for intruding!" she mockingly called out into the room as she stepped through. She closed the door and turned around to see Agito in only a towel staring right at her with the same surprise in his eyes. Water dripped from his spiky blue hair and down his hard chest – Kairi suddenly felt herself go hot and knew her face was burning.

"A-Ah! Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she blabbered.

"F-Fuck!" Agito yelled, quickly regaining his senses and pulling clothes out of his suitcase whilst Kairi dug for the warm cover on the futon they forgot to put away earlier this morning. He paused and raised a brow at the small bump in the covers. "Kai-chan?"

A meek "Hai?" came through the covers.

"Don't look okay? I'm changing now. The towel's going off," he smirked cheekily which was followed by the _plop!_ of the wet towel hitting the floor. He allowed himself a smile of self-satisfaction when he saw the covers jump. He made sure he was fully dressed in neat dark blue jeans, white t-shirt, and an opened black dress shirt before turning back to the girl huddled under the covers.

"You can look now," he smugly said. When no reply came, he frowned. "Oi, Kai-chan, I'm fully dressed." But still, the covers stayed still and no reply came. He leaned forward and pulled the covers off. His eyebrow twitched.

_She's asleep? What the fuck!_

_Aw, Kai-chan is so cute_, Akito laughed, to which Agito replied with a scowl. His features softened as he continued to look at the sleeping girl, oblivious to his annoyance and the world.

He sighed. _Whatever, let her sleep. I just got dressed as well. Fuck._

He settled himself on the other side of the futon and pulled the covers over both of them. He stared at the soft features of the girl, taking in her long dark lashes, small nose, and pink lips on her fair skin. A thought struck him.

_Maybe I should tell crow that we're staying back?_

* * *

…

…

…

…

…

"Hey, Ikki?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are Kairi-chan and Agito/Akito…"

…

"FUCK, THAT STUPID PERVERTED BRAT! TRYING TO SEDUCE MY LITTLE KAI-CHAN WHILE WE'RE OUT SHOPPING, HUH? I'LL GO TEACH _HIM_ A LESSON! JUST YOU WAIT; I'M GOING TO BEAT HIM UP SO BAD THAT KAI-CHAN WILL NEVER LOOK AT HIS UGLY FACE AGAIN! I'M GONNA – "

"CALM DOWN, YOU FUCKING CROW!"

"LET GO OF ME! LET ME KICK HIS PUNY ARSE! LET ME – ARGHHHHH!"

* * *

"Hey, Buccha? Can I talk to you for a second?" Sophie asked with concern written all over her face.

Buccha placed the book down he was reading in the hotel's lobby and indicated to the seat in front of him. "What's wrong?"

Sophie frowned as she sat down. "It's about Kairi… Today at the reception when she was getting a spare key, she had a sudden dizzy attack and fell. She was holding her hand to her chest and stomach and seemed to be in great pain. Is everything okay?"

Buccha pondered over her words. He sighed. "I don't know what is happening to her but thank you for telling me, Sophie. I know that Kairi-chan would never tell any of us because that's just the kind of person she is and it's relieving to hear so we are aware. She's been through a lot…"

Sophie smiled weakly. "She's a good kid."

"Yeah."

Sophie smoothed her skirt and stood up with a smile. "Well, now we can look out for her and make sure she's okay. I'll see you later, Buccha."

He smiled back. "Sure. Until then, Sophie."

After she was gone, he put his head between his hands and closed his eyes. His eyes snapped open and he got up. "Crow," he called out.

The spiky haired boy turned around at his name and nodded in greeting, a scowl gracing his features because a certain two were noticeably absent at their shopping trip in town. "Sup?"

Buccha went straight to the point. "Sophie saw Kairi collapse from a dizzy attack earlier today at the reception and seemed to be in pain."

Crow's eyes widened a fraction before he scoffed and regained his irritated expression. "Che, it's still no excuse to miss shopping to spend a day with the brat. I'm going to tell her off now." He scratched his head before nodding at the other male in thanks and goodbye.

Outwardly, he swaggered and wore a controlled face as he walked down the corridors of the hotel. In the sanctuary of his mind, he was anxious. Kairi was fainting around the place again. It didn't happen often, usually they kept things under control (he blamed the vacation for their slackness), but Ikki knew it was no good when she did start to. Honestly, could his father be any crueller? Placing such a large burden and, dare he say it, a _monster_ inside a young girl knowing the scarring side effects? The Heartless inside Kairi was acting up again, and when Kairi started to faint, he knew it was nearly _time._

Play time.

And Ikki was going to be there to stop it, he decided. He would be there for her this time, for the little girl who was close enough to be a sister, perhaps even closer than his adoptive Noyamano sisters.

Speak of the devil.

"Hey Ikki," the Crazy Apple smiled at him, coming from her room. Although Ikki was usually good at keeping a composed face, having been with Ringo for so long has allowed her to see past his façade. He guessed something must've shown on his face (either that, or she knew him too well) because the next question she asked was, "Do you need to talk?"

This girl was too good.

"Let's go AT," he calmly suggested with a hint of cockiness. "Let's see if you've been slacking off."

She grinned, but in her eyes was worry. "Well you might be surprised to know I've been ATing every early morning," she boasted jokingly.

But it was true. Ikki had woken up countless times during their stay by the familiar and reassuring whiz of AT wheels winding and winding until the release – the shot towards the sky. Sometimes the temptation to join her cutting through the forest seemed too great, but he always reminded himself that if he ever asked to join he would come off as a stalker who followed her at 4AM in the morning. Yes, something the great Ikki would rather avoid.

But Ikki found himself in a good situation: they were in the forest with their ATs without him coming off as a stalker. Ahh, such genius.

Ikki winded his wheels and the whizzing noise surrounded the air.

"Run type battle. Last to reach the hotel treats the other to food," Ikki announced, kicking his heel on the ground.

He released. Ringo was hot at his heels.

"Kairi's in danger. Heartless is acting up, and causing her to faint," he said to Ringo, acting as if they were having a casual conversation. The intentional reckless way he slashed his way through the forest caused enough noise to fend off eavesdroppers. "Soon Heartless will take over and go on a killing spree," Ikki continued.

"For blood," Ringo finished with a nod. She saw a path in front of her and smirked as she pushed off to the tree to her right and kicked off upon landing on it, twirling in the air and narrowly missing slicing Ikki's nose who she cut across. He scowled and sped up.

"I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen," he said seriously.

Ringo stared at him, the boy who breathlessly twisted his way through a small gap between tree branches as if it was nothing special compared to his worries. His hidden words:

"I'll keep an eye on her," she reassured him.

Ikki nodded before smirking. "You better have enough money to pay for my meal, 'cause I ain't gonna hold back when you treat me to sushi train."

Conversation over. The real race begins now.

Ringo scoffed and landed on a branch. She bent her knees before releasing and leaving a broken tree behind. As she flew past Ikki she trailed a finger on his cheek and threw him a cheeky smile. "Crows should learn to walk before they learn to fly." And she was gone in the blur of trees ahead.

Ikki blinked before shaking his head in disbelief. "Damn woman."

* * *

Simca was walking on the porch of the traditional Japanese style inn connected to the forest when she heard the familiar whiz of an AT. From the corner of her eye she saw a flash of pink and orange in the forest before hearing a familiar voice and deciding to hide around the corner.

"I'm gonna beat ya!"

"No you're not!"

From the bushes burst a pink faced Ringo, who fell on the ground when another figure came stumbling after her. Simca felt a pang of jealousy when she saw it was beloved Ikki-kun in the orange shirt who collided into the girl, wrapping his arms around her and twisting them so he was on the bottom to cover their fall. The spiteful feeling inside her heightened when they both started to laugh, Ringo still on top of Crow.

"I guess you owe me to a meal then," Ringo smiled cheekily at the boy below her, rolling off him to sit by his side.

"Tch, I guess," he replied, sitting up whilst scratching his head, causing stray leaves and grass to fall out in the process. Ringo laughed.

"Silly, let me help you." She reached into his hair and Ikki bowed his head to give her better access. "There, all done," she said, giving his hair one last cleaning. She paused then smiled teasingly. "Sooo, when are you taking me out for a meal?"

"Huh. So eager for food; you're going to get fat- Ow! Hey! Stop hitting me! Fine, fine! I'll take you out tomorrow for dinner or something. Geez, women and their body image issues."

"Okay!"

Simca tuned out for the rest of the conversation to replay the information in her head.

_Tomorrow? I'll need to think of something to prevent them from going… Ah!_

She dashed to find Kevin. When she found him, she approached him with a flirty smile. "Hey Kevin-kun~ Do you think you could get me and my friends tickets for a full day tour tomorrow or something? Until after dinner please~"

Kevin smiled back with his own lady-killer smile. "Sure thing, sweet thing. But it's going to cost money, hm?"

"You can charge it onto our hotel bill," Simca slapped his arm. Her smile dropped slightly. "Ah, what about Kairi-chan? Have you talked to her yet? Gotten anything sweet out of her about Ikki-kun?"

"Nope," Kevin replied back without so looking as disappointed as Simca. "The schizo is always around her."

"Agito/Akito?" Simca blinked before shaking her head. "You'll keep trying though, won't you? Kairi-chan is quite cute, ne?"

"Hmm, she doesn't seem interested," Kevin mused. "And it seems she already has a man."

Simca narrowed her eyes at the American. "Doesn't matter, she's just playing hard to get ne? And don't worry about the boy; someone already has her claim on him."

Kevin shrugged. "If you say so, love. Excuse me; I need to go pick someone up. I'll get those tickets to you in the morning."

"Thank you darling~" Simca cooed happily. She walked into the ladies' bathroom and stared at her reflection with a small smile.

"Ringo is being a bad girl~ Trying to take away Ikki-kun~"

* * *

"Emily! Kairi! I need to tell you guys something!" Ringo beamed, tugging them close to her as they walked out of the dining hall.

"We can talk in my room," Kairi offered. She turned to look back at Akito. "Akito-kun, don't come into our room for a bit okay?"

"Okay~ I'll be back in an hour so be warned!" Akito chirped, twirling towards Kairi to hug the girl before skipping away ("Ne, ne, Ikki-kun! Want to hear a joke?" "No, get lost kid." "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "I said get lost. STOP HUGGING MY LEG!" "Wrong! It's to get to the other side~").

Kairi quickly opened the door with her keys before Emily pushed them inside and closing the door with her hip – "Tell, tell, tell!" she cheered.

"Quiet!" Ringo hissed, settling herself on the futon. She paused and looked at both of the girls before breaking out into a grin. "Ikki is treating me to a meal tomorrow!"

"Ooh! A date? Oh my god, it's a date right? Did he ask you out? Or did you ask him out? Are you guys official? You are, right? I mean – "

"Shut up for a second Emily!" Ringo scolded lightly with a wide grin still plastered on her face. "But no, it's not a date. We made a bet that the loser had to treat the winner to food. I won," she smiled coyly.

"Ooh, nice going there you little minx! Get in there!" Emily nudged the blushing girl.

Kairi took Ringo's hands into her own. "Do you have something to wear?"

Ringo blinked at the girl. Seconds ticked by, until:

"OH MY GOD! I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR? WHAT, WHAT, WHAT AM I - ?"

"Calm down!" Kairi hushed the girl. "We'll find something!"

Emily smiled wickedly. "We've already found you something." And from out of nowhere she pulled out a black dress that she had shown Ringo earlier. "Reeeemember this?"

"I can't wear that!" Ringo gasped in horror as she stared at it. "It's too good! It's too revealing! It's too… sexy," she mumbled sadly. "I'm not sexy; I can't be sexy if I tried!"

"Oh sure you can, just hurry up and change into it! Then we can match shoes and accessories… Oh hurry up and put it on! Geez, I'll put it on you if I have to!"

"NO!"

"THEN HURRY UP! WE ONLY HAVE AN HOUR UNTIL AKITO COMES BACK! WE STILL NEED TO DO A TRIAL OUTFIT!"

"STOP TOUCHING ME! H-HEY! MOU, STOP IT!"

"NO! HURRY UP AND STRIP!"

Kairi sweatdropped as she stared at the two bickering girls.

"This is going to be a long night…"

* * *

"Ne, today's the big day, are you excited?" Emily grinned deviously, surprisingly cheery in the early morning, and nudged Ringo. Ringo stumbled from the sudden topic and her tray with food tipped dangerously.

"M-Mou! Emily, be careful! I nearly spilt my tray!" Ringo scolded the girl, her face matching the colour of her hair.

"She's blushing!" Kairi gasped, forgetting for a moment that she was also carrying a tray of food. She collected herself before grinning at Ringo who was being jabbed at by a smirking Emily.

"You're so cute!" Emily laughed loudly.

"Who's cute?" Ikki questioned, butting his head in between Emily and Ringo. He continued, oblivious to the red face of Ringo, "You mean Kai-chan? What are you talking about, she's a monster!"

"You're so mean, Kiki-chan!" Kairi cried. "I guess it won't matter if another boy calls me cute then-"

"No boy is going to call you cute when I'm around!" Ikki yelled back protectively. He caught himself and quickly got his 'badass' act together again. "Of course no boy will ever call you cute when I'm alive. Even when I'm dead, you're going to be some old fart, still as ugly as you are now," he coolly said, taking Kairi's tray with his right hand in one clean sweep.

"H-Hey! Kiki-chan! Give that back!" Kairi yelled after him in frustration, pounding her small fists against his back. "Mou! You're so mean!"

Emily and Ringo stood back and watched the exchange in amusement.

"They're so cute!" Emily squealed. "They're like brother and sister, don't you think so Ringo?"

Ringo smiled back. "Hai."

"Ooh, and then when you get married to Crow, Kairi will be like a sister-in-law!" Emily fantasized. "And then when you guys are out on a date (or getting down in funky town hehehe), she can stay home and look after your seven kids! Oh! And then when-"

"S-s-seven kids?" Ringo exclaimed. She felt like her face would explode. "I-I-I'm not having seven kids!"

"Oh? Really?" Emily stopped her spiel mid-way. "Wow, aiming high, aren't ya? Fine, then Kairi-chan can stay home and look after your _ten_ kids!"

"T-T-TEN?" Ringo nearly fainted. "T-T-This is too much…Emily, please calm down…"

"Hai, hai," Emily pouted. "You're so fun, Ringo-chaan! Why don't you let your imagination run for a bit, huh? Ooh, scared you're gonna fantasize something naughty like-"

"Emily!"

"Okay, okay. I'll stop…but you know, that's really kinky of you-"

"EMILY."

"Shutting up now…"

"…Thank you."

A sigh. "Party pooper."

"Glad to be of service."

"Tch."

"Yo!" The girls saw Kazu at a nearby round table, waving his arms around. "Over here!"

Emily beamed. "Kazu-!" She stopped herself as she remembered the beach incident. She coughed and turned her head purposely away to look at Ringo. "_Anyway_, like I was saying…"

Ringo caught Kazu's face fall for a second before it snapped back into his neutral expression. She half-smiled back at Emily as the girl attempted to continue on some non-existent conversation.

"Yahoo! How are my favourite people doing?" Simca cheered, making a dramatic entrance at the table. Everyone greeted her back with less enthusiasm. "Why are you lot so unhappy, huh? Not to worry, not to worry! You will all love what I'm about to say next! We can only go today, but not to worry! I got us all tickets for a whole day tour to the mountains and a nearby local village! Don't ask me for the name though, because I have for-got-ten~!"

"When you say 'whole day', do you mean just the morning and afternoon?" Ikki questioned casually, sharing an uneasy glance with Ringo across the table.

"Nope! These are very special tickets! We are going to be having dinner up there with the locals!" Simca replied back with more enthusiasm – _Yes, now Ikki-kun can't go on a date with Ringo-chan~_!

"Well, we haven't planned anything else for today, have we?" Buccha inquired the rest of the group.

"No, we haven't!" Simca confirmed in their place. "And I put a lot of effort into getting these tickets which have to be used _today_! You don't want it all to be wasted, do you?" she pouted.

"Tch. Sounds boring, count me out," Agito scoffed.

"Eh? How does it sound boring?" Kairi gasped at the boy. "I want to go; it sounds like fun! Plus I've never been on a mountain before."

Agito grumbled. "Fine, whatever I'll go. _Only_ to prove to you it's boring," he quickly added when he saw Kairi's shining eyes. He raised a brow. "Don't give me that look. Fuck."

Kairi giggled.

"Hey," Ikki leaned over from Kairi's right, putting his arm around her. "Trying to hit on her, punk? I still haven't forgiven you for staying back with Kai-chan when we were meant to go shopping. You didn't do anything to her did you?"

"No. Fuck off, Crow," Agito dismissed him indifferently.

Ikki made hand gestures. "I'm keeping my eyes on you," he leered with narrowed eyes.

"Kiki-chan!" Kairi scolded.

Yayoi huffed at the exchange. Why was Crow insinuating that Agito would even _hit _on Kairi? "I'm in!" she told Simca.

"Good, good!" Simca sang. "Anyone else?"

Kururu raised her hand shyly whilst Emily waved hers around wildly.

"Ooh, me, me, me!"

Kazu glanced at Emily before half raising his hand. "Yeah, I'm in."

Emily glanced at the laid back boy, lounging back in his blue hoodie and his usual white beanie with his tousled blonde locks peeking from underneath. Her heart thumped wildly and she willed herself to look away – _Idiot, you still haven't forgiven him!_

The pig readily agreed, ranting on about beautiful, local Japanese girls with big breasts and cute innocence, but no one paid much attention to him.

"Well, it's down to you two," Simca said to Ikki and Ringo. Ikki stared with nervous eyes at Ringo, who looked down at her lap after she realised why he wasn't replying.

_He's letting me decide whether to go or not! Mou, so hard. It'll be suspicious if I don't agree… But I really want to go out with Ikki!...What should I do?_

"Y-Yeah, I'll go," Ringo slowly replied back with an unsure smile. Seeing this, Ikki leaned back and shrugged coolly.

"Me too."

Simca beamed. "Great-o! I'll tell Kevin-san that we're all going! Eat up your breakfast, we're going to have a fu~n da~y! You won't regret this!"

Ringo grumbled bitterly. She dared a glance at Ikki, blushing when she found he was also looking at her. She poked at the sunny-side-up eggs on her plate with new found irritation.

_Ie, Simca-chan. I'm already regretting this._

* * *

The group had just come back from the local village and were taking turns to shower. Currently everyone was in the recreation room, lounging around or playing pool, whilst Kururu and Simca were in their room. Kururu had just finished her shower and next was Simca's turn.

"Ne, Simca? Can I talk to you?" Kururu squeaked, making sure no one else was in their room.

Simca beamed and patted the space next to her on the bed. "Sure thing, darling~! What's up?"

Kururu awkwardly shifted to place herself on the edge of the bed. She tugged on the edge of her dress and hastily stopped when she realised. "U-Um, has Kevin-san… found out anything? A-About Ikki and Kairi-san I mean!"

Simca blinked before the edges of her lips tightened. "Don't worry, Kururu-cha~n! He knows what his doing, I'm pretty sure he's trying to act cool by not telling us anything," she winked, "ne?"

Kururu's face dawned with understanding and she nodded rapidly. "Hai! Sorry for doubting! I'll be on my way! Thank you, Simca-chan!" she skipped her way out.

As the door closed, Simca turned to look down at her hands and a frown appeared on her beautiful face. She sighed tiredly. In actual fact, Kevin had been useless and he did nothing but chatting up other girls after realising that it wasn't worth the effort – he didn't even try separate Agito and Kairi to talk to her!

What a player.

She groaned as another problem came into her mind. The Crazy Apple was getting a little _too_ close with her Ikki-kun and it wasn't like she was blowing it out of proportion either. No, she hadn't personally talked to Ikki-kun for _two days._ So maybe she's being a bit dramatic but seriously, this was _her_ Ikki-kun that she was separated from. What could she do to get rid of Ringo? Their pact never said anything about betraying each other, only to go up against Kairi-san…

A boy with dirty blond hair and snarky eyes came into her mind.

The boy would be perfect, she concluded. Although he was a lazy and messed up arsehole, he was just as wicked, snarky and vindictive as she was and the only thing that she respected him for was their shared ruthless and unforgiving nature. Oh yes, he would be perfect. He and Ikki-kun never got along, and to invite him to the resort when Ikki-kun and Ringo-chan are at such a friendly relationship would cause the blond's blood to boil and crave for vengeance. Oh, did she forget to mention? He was very possessive, not a whole lot different from her. Ringo would hardly get a chance alone with Ikki!

She paused. What about Ringo-chan? The spiteful boy would most likely punish her in some way for getting too close to Ikki-kun, and to pull her apart from Ikki-kun would probably break her heart. She liked Ringo-chan – no, _loved_ her as a friend – however… She loved Ikki-kun far too much to hand him over to anyone, and if she had to hurt her friend in the process, then so be it.

She felt a monster inside her roaring and, honestly, she felt sick to her toes. She suppressed the tears forming with thoughts of Ikki-kun.

No, it was wrong, Simca argued with herself. Besides, she didn't know how she could contact the blond boy! She would just have to try get Kevin (with a bit of bribery perhaps) to focus on his new mission of separating Ringo-chan from Ikki-kun! Mission Kai-chan can wait!

There was a shriek outside.

Simca's head snapped up and she raced to the door – _That was Ringo-chan's voice!_

She looked to her left and saw the girl awkwardly in someone's arms. Several small (and noticeably male) travel bags were scattered around her and it looked like she had bumped into someone and had nearly fallen.

"A-Ah, gomen! I didn't see you there, I-" Ringo babbled as she turned to look up at her saviour.

She saw the pink head stumble away from the boy.

"K-Kanon?" Ringo gasped.

The blond smiled wickedly.

"Yo, Ringo-chan! Did you miss me?"

Inside Simca's head, she began plotting a million schemes to divert Ringo from Ikki with Kanon. A little part of her felt like she was doing something bad, but she shrugged it off.

_All's fair in love and war, right?_

* * *

Ringo was turning the corner into the breakfast hall the next morning when she came face to face with a blond.

"Yo!" Kanon greeted cheerily.

Ringo eyed him suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm having breakfast," he replied innocently.

"No, I mean in this hotel!"

"I'm visiting relatives in the town nearby," he answered back coolly. His smile turned snarky. "Why? Thinking I followed you here?"

Ringo huffed and turned away. "No."

Kanon followed her to the buffet with his hands in his jeans pockets, laughing. "Ne, Ringo-chan, you're so fun to tease!"

Ringo muttered something under her breath and hurried to find Emily. She found her in the queue for food, intentionally and obviously ignoring Kazu who was behind her with a look of desperation and dejection. Ringo thought to herself that she would see if Kazu wanted to talk later. Not that they were close friends, no never. They knew each other through common friendships with Ikki in high school, but once the Gram Scale Tournament started, they never once talked nor found the need to. But now Kazu was Emily's boyfriend and Emily was Ringo's best friend and Ringo wanted Emily to be happy. Emily was currently obviously not happy with the way things were in their relationship and so Ringo was going to help them so they could be happy again.

After Ringo got her tray of food (with much disturbance from Kanon trying to play the boyfriend figure and get food for her), she headed towards the table. She saw Ikki there, already gulfing down several plates down in a short time. He glanced up and their eyes met. His head nodded the slightest bit, so little that people that weren't watching him wouldn't notice that he was. Ringo repeated the gesture, him going back to his food as soon as she did, and she sat down in her seat smiling.

Tonight, he would take her out for dinner.

"Everyone~ I found us another whole day event again!" Simca cheered, popping out of nowhere.

Ringo slapped her head.

_Or maybe not… Stupid Simca-chan!_

"There's a massive sale in town today! There will also be a live band at night, doesn't it sound mar~velou~s?" Simca sang.

A series of cheers erupted from the table whilst Ringo felt the need to dig herself into a deep hole.

_Just my luck…_

* * *

Despite her earlier moping, Ringo found herself strangely refreshed after a few hours of shopping, feeling new feelings of hope and assurance that they still had a few days for Ikki to take her out. She sighed happily in content. Gotta love retail therapy, she thought to herself. It was a real bonus that everything was so cheap too!

She glanced behind her at all the guys tailing the energetic girls. It was a good thing that they dragged them along to carry all their bags! It was really bothersome to try search through racks and racks of clothing when you already have ten shopping bags hindering your search.

Whilst the other girls around her were debating where to shop next, Ringo checked her wallet to find it was nearly empty.

"I'll be right back! I just need to get some more money!" Ringo pointed towards a nearby ATM. "Don't leave okay?"

She hurried to the ATM, not bothering to wait to see if they had heard her – because they had heard her, right? She saw Kairi had nodded from the corner of her eye. She inserted her bank card, inputted her PIN and drew out the desired amount of cash. She half turned only to find Kanon lazily leaning on the nearby wall. She jumped.

"K-Kanon?" she squeaked. She slapped his arm. "Don't scare me like that! Geez."

Kanon smirked lazily and propped himself off the wall. "Sorry, Apple."

"Don't call me that," she threw him a glare.

He shrugged. "It's cute. Or would you prefer Crazy Apple?"

Ringo scoffed and walked away from him to head back towards the others, only to find they weren't there. "Ne, Kanon. Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know. I was following you and when I turned around, they were gone," he said, not bothered by the situation at all.

Ringo panicked. "Huh? B-But- Oh, I can call them! Oh wait! I left my phone at the hotel! Ringo, you idiot… I could try a public phone! But I don't know their numbers… Ahh!"

Kanon took her hand and lead her to an ice-cream shop. "We'll meet them back later at the hotel. In the meantime, we can have fun without them."

"B-B-But-!" _It's 3 o'clock now and everyone is going back at 8! That means 5 hours alone with Kanon!_

Kanon turned around to place a finger on her lips with his other hand. "Just listen to me."

Ringo fell silent and let him drag her around. She vaguely heard him cheerfully order them ice-cream as she lost herself in her worries.

_Mou…What will Ikki think? Will he think I'm dating Kanon? Then maybe he won't take me out for dinner anymore… This sucks!_

"Oh, by the way Ringo," Kanon interrupted her from her thoughts, "let's have dinner at a restaurant in town later. It's my treat. Ah, I heard there will be a live band later tonight. We can also watch them."

_Great, this sounds like a date with Kanon… Now Ikki will definitely think we're dating and that I chose dinner with Kanon over him!_

* * *

"Hey, shouldn't we wait for Ringo?" Emily questioned the others. There were a few murmurs of agreement. "Oh! And Kanon-san as well! Not that anyone really knows why he's tagging along…"

"Nope!" Simca chirped. "Let her have some _alone time_ with Kanon-san!" she winked.

The others 'oh'ed in dawning understanding around her, a few being crude enough to whistle suggestively. Ikki, however, stayed silent and felt something inside him boil in irritation.

_Fish eyes? Tch. Why would she want to be alone with him?_

Both Emily and Kairi played along, but once the topic had moved on, they looked at each other worriedly.

"Did she bring her phone?" Kairi asked quietly.

"No, I remember her leaving it at the hotel because she thought she wouldn't need it," Emily replied back anxiously.

Kairi frowned and turned away. "Let's hope we run into her then." She 'oof'ed as she felt something warm collide into her back.

"Waah, why are you so serious, Kai-chan?" Akito sang as he pulled her cheeks teasingly, trying to rearrange it into a smile. "Smile! Smile!"

"Akito-kun, that hurts!" Kairi cried through her stretched cheeks. She tried to swat his hands away but he was too strong. She stumbled as she felt a sharp prick in her head. She saw black dots fill her vision and she fell forward as it consumed her.

"A-Ah! Kai-chan!" Akito cried as he quickly caught the girl.

_Fuck! Kairi! _Agito growled from within.

"Kai-chan? Ne, are you okay? Hello? Kai-chan?" Akito whimpered, trying to reposition the girl better in his arms. Kairi slowly and awkwardly pushed away from him and stood up, still wobbly from the black dots.

"A-Ah, I'm okay, just tripped," she mumbled.

"Like hell you did!" Agito growled. Kairi jumped at the loud voice and looked at him in surprise.

"You came out…" she muttered. She shook her head. "I'm fine, don't worry about me," she blandly said as she pushed his desperate reaching hands away. She huffed when he resisted but shoved them away harder before walking towards the stall where everyone else was.

Agito grumbled under his breath as he watched the girl wobbled away. "Stupid bitch. Fuck! I'm leaving." He pulled the eye patch across as switched with Akito. Akito was unfortunate enough to tolerate with his constant grumbling inside their body for the remainder of the day, not that he paid much attention to the whinging brat.

* * *

Ringo found herself jumped on by the other girls when she walked back into their room later that night after dinner.

"Ne, Ringo? We're friends right? We can tell each other things right?" Kururu asked timidly. The other girls sat around them in silence. To Ringo they all seemed like they were about to jump on her once they had permission.

She nodded. "Of course."

"Well," she trailed off, before leaning forward and beaming. "So what's going on between you and Kanon?"

"Are you guys dating? You two did wonder off alone today…"

"Ooh, you guys are so cute together!"

"Yay! Another couple among us!"

"A-Ah! No! Kanon and I are just friends, there's nothing between us!" Ringo answered.

Simca smiled wickedly as she observed the situation. Things were going right to plan…

"But Ringo-chan," she interrupted innocently, "what about Ikki-kun? I thought you liked him…"

Yayoi gasped. "Now that I think about it, what's going on? You like Ikki but you go off alone with Kanon-san? Oh, do you like them both? Isn't that…"

"Bad?" Kururu supplied meekly, with a hint of disgust.

"Oh please!" Emily scoffed, wrapping her arm around the nervous Ringo. "Ringo is too innocent for that! Her feelings for Crow are real! She will never two time him! Besides, how can she like someone like him, I will never know!"

Laughs filled the room.

"Hey, Ikki-kun isn't that bad!"

"Yeah, he's quite… good looking…"

"You mean hot, Kururu? Huh?"

"M-Maybe...!"

"You're so cute Kururu-chaan! Look at you, blushing so hard! I just wanna hug you, aww!"

Simca bit her lip and frowned slightly. No, this wasn't how it was supposed to turn out. They weren't supposed to dismiss the issue so quickly but gang up on Ringo. How did this happen? Her eyes flickered over to a laughing brunette.

"Aww, look at you Kururu! So cute! I definitely don't know how someone as sweet as you could like Crow!"

Emily needed to go, Simca decided. Emily defended Ringo and easily turned the conversation around. Either Emily had to go or she had to leave Ringo's side. Her thoughts flashed to the memory of Emily yelling at Kazu at the beach. Their relationship has been rocky ever since then. Then she remembered Ringo pulling Kazu aside after breakfast earlier and asking if he wanted to talk about Emily later tonight.

To make Emily hate Ringo…

Simca smiled wickedly.

She had just the plan…

* * *

Emily found herself happily humming later that night when she stumbled across a letter with her name addressed on it on her bed. Her heart soared when she read that it was from Kazu-sama who wished to meet her later that night in the garden to apologise to her among other things which made her heart soar. She felt like she was in middle school again, meeting with first crush. She felt giddy and _girly._ Hell, she even bothered to change her clothes – which took her 20 minutes before she found an outfit she liked.

She walked out of the room in denim shorts and a yellow flowing singlet. She giggled.

_Silly Kazu-sama was pretty slow to realize that he needed to apologize!_

She was mid-way humming a happy tune when she saw Kazu sitting on a stone bench in the garden. She beamed and was about to run over and hug him from behind when she saw someone from the corner of her eye. She crouched among the bushes and flowers, thinking to herself how stupid she must be – _It's probably some stranger innocently walking in the garden, nothing to do with Kazu-sama!_ – and was about to walk up to him when her eyes widened as the other person stepped into the light.

…_R-Ringo? _

She pushed her doubts away but they all came crashing back when she saw the pink-haired girl sit next to him, placing a hand on his back and rubbing circles.

_No,_ Emily thought to herself_, maybe it wasn't Kazu-sama…_

But it was unmistakably the boy in her heart: the lax curve of his back; the Adidas sneakers which she had bought him last summer; the jumper in which he stuffed his hands in with the hood down; the blonde flecks of hair; and above all, the white beanie.

Okay, so maybe Ringo was having a friendly chat with Kazu-sama… Ringo was her best friend and wouldn't be secretly meeting up with Kazu-sama behind her back, right? She was obsessed with Crow as far as she knew and this was all some coincidence.

A voice inside her head yelled. _What kind of friendly chat is that, when Ringo is putting her hands all over Kazu-sama?_

Emily wavered.

No, her best friend wouldn't do this to her. She wouldn't betray her like this!

She saw the boy lean forward with his head in his hand, which spurred Ringo to put both hands on his back, continuing to rub circles. Her heart broke and all doubt was lost when she saw Ringo tilt her head to rest on the boy's shoulders and the boy slightly lean into the girl's warm touch.

She tore herself away, tears streaming down her cheeks as her chest clenched painfully, not wanting to watch anymore. And in doing so, she missed everything and anything she should have stayed to watch.

She missed the tears running down the Thorn Queen's face.

She missed the growing shake of the Flame King's body as he racked with silent sobs.

She missed the quiet, soothing words of the Thorn Queen as she comforted the blond.

And she missed the Flame King's strangled cry for the girl he loved the most, the girl who held his heart in her hands.

"_EMILY!"_

* * *

Ringo felt exhausted after comforting the poor heartbroken Kazu. Somewhere inside the boy, she saw herself, wandering around lost and being separated from the one who holds her heart because of damn misunderstandings. Part of her worries washed away as Kazu cried on her shoulders, but most of them stayed as she still had to figure how to help them – _and_ sort out the misunderstandings created with Ikki because of stupid Kanon.

Of course, the latter would have to be discreet; if Ikki didn't really like her and didn't mind that she was supposedly '_dating_' Kanon then Ringo would probably have to kill herself right there and then on the spot in pure humiliation and embarrassment.

It didn't make things any better when she passed Kanon in the hallway, only to be asked out. She was so tired she couldn't give a _fucks worth_ so just told him 'whatever' which, thinking back on it now, wasn't such a great idea as he would probably take it as a yes.

Damn misunderstandings.

Ringo sighed and opened the door to her room. The air was tense and she suddenly felt anxious and jumpy. The other girls (minus Kairi who was probably off somewhere with Agito or Akito, whichever one) were sitting around a hunched Emily and glaring profusely at her.

She slowly closed the door and treaded lightly over to them in caution. "Are you okay, Emily?" she asked quietly, kneeling down and reaching out to comfort the girl.

"Don't talk to her!" Yayoi hissed, causing Ring to jump back in hurt surprise. "And don't even think of touching her!"

"Wah?"

"What kind of best friend are you?" Yayoi continued.

"I don't understand…" Ringo articulated slowly with pure confusion on her face.

"You were secretly meeting up with Kazu-san!" Kururu blurted out in her small voice.

"Huh?" Ringo blinked. She frowned as she regained herself. "Yes, but-"

"I can't believe you did that! Kazu-san is Emily-chan's boyfriend!" Simca cried in horror. The other girls agreed.

"What? No, no, no! You're all misunderstanding! I wasn't going behind Emily's back to-"

"Yes you were!" Kururu bit her lip.

"Okay, so maybe I _did_ go behind her back to talk to him, but there's nothing to it, I swear! Nothing is going on between us-!"

"Just like you and Kanon, huh?" Yayoi bit back bitterly. "Not to mention Ikki. Are you trying to go after every boy you lay eyes on? Doesn't that make you a bit of a… slut?"

"W-What? No! I'm not…! I didn't…! I…!" Ringo yelled in frustration. She felt tears prickle in her eyes and she suddenly felt too exhausted to defend herself and try tell the truth. All she wanted to do was curl up in her warm bed and sleep this horrible nightmare away, hoping to wake up with all abnormalities gone.

The room was silent for a while, save Emily's sobs, until Kururu ended it with her quiet voice. "Mou, that's horrible of you, Ringo-chan… I can't believe you did that to your own best friend…"

Ringo felt the words trying to come out of her mouth but it was too hard through the tears, the clenched throat, and overwhelming feeling of being too drained and sore to care anymore.

_No, I was trying to help them! I was helping Kazu with how to fix things with Emily! Believe me, I swear! Please believe me! _

"Come on, Emily," Simca cooed, "let's get you to bed."

Yayoi and Kururu also helped the shaking girl to her bed, saying words of comfort and sympathy, before climbing into their own. Ringo continued to sit in the middle of the room, not moving an inch, shadows dancing across her pale skin as the moonlight peeked in through the blinds. It wasn't until it was all silent and the other girls were fast asleep that Ringo could finally force the words out of her lips.

"Please believe me…" she whimpered croakily. A few seconds passed by when she wearily dragged herself into her own bed, not bothering to change out of her clothes. Sleep hit her as soon as her head fell on the pillow, commencing nightmares of the earlier events to replay.

Lying in the darkest corner of the room, Emily was still wide awake. She mused over Ringo's words and felt torn. In her heart, she knew her best friend would never do something so horrible to her, but her mind logically pieced together the evidence and replayed the events of what she saw and came to the conclusion of her best friend's betrayal.

Her heart ached. Two betrayals in one night.

Life was a bitch.

* * *

Kazu drifted aimlessly around the hotel. Emily wasn't talking to him for some reason – _again_. He could never understand girls, they were such complicated creatures. One minute they're acting all cutesy, the next minute they're yelling at you, and then come the deathly silent treatment. Ah yes, Kazu was not unfamiliar with a la silent treatment. He never understood why he was given such harsh treatment anyway; if the silent treatment was to make me think about and realize what he has done wrong, then it obviously was not working at all because Kazu had no fucking clue what he had done wrong each and every time.

He ran a hair through his sun-kissed blonde hair and sighed in exasperation for the nth time that morning.

Breakfast was horrible. No, worse, it was like a mine field waiting to explode. He was so scared of taking a treading wrongly and causing the whole situation to blow out of hand – and he was glad that many of the other guys felt the same way. The atmosphere was so tense and deadly, most of the girls chatted with fake cheeriness and screechy laughs – Kazu noted that Ringo sat with her head down, poking and rearranging her food the whole time. Kairi had tried to talk to her, only to get a small shake of the head. The guys had all opted to stay silent; nothing could go wrong if nothing came out of their mouths right? Girls always take everything said out of proportion and misunderstand. Times like these, Kazu wished he were gay. Well, not really. Boobs made everything worth it.

Kazu sighed again for the nth plus one time that morning. What he would give for the world to be happy and forgiving so he wouldn't be wandering aimlessly around the empty halls because Emily decided to through a bitch fit.

Though it was strange, he noted; Emily usually took her anger out physically by either option a) yelling at poor, innocent Kazu or b) maiming poor, innocent Kazu. Not that he minded the change of course, his ear drums were quite content without all the yelling and his body was just as glad that he didn't need to soak himself in cold water tonight to try stop the swelling from Emily's punches. God, that woman could hit.

Kazu sighed and decided that he really ought to stop sighing and counting in 'nths plus whatever'.

_Women._

Well, at least on the bright side his day couldn't possibly be worse because of the confusing and troubling stirring gender, right?

Kazu stumbled across a crying Ringo on the porch.

_Spoke too soon. _

Kazu sighed (and cursed himself that he had sighed again; adding to the sigh count which was now nth plus three) and plopped himself next to the girl. He scrunched up his face. What the hell is a guy supposed to do when a girl is crying right in front of him?

"U-Uh… Are you okay?"

_Yes, yes of course she's okay Kazu, I mean – GOD, HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET? SHE'S CRYING, DOES SHE _LOOK_ FUCKING OKAY? _

"H-Hic!... Hic! Hic!...I'm fine…Hic!..." Ringo sniffed, furiously wiping away her tears.

Kazu leaned his head down to massage his temple with his right hand. What to do, what to do, what to do…

_Tissues!_

"Oh, here. I forgot they were in my pocket from breakfast," Kazu said, handing her napkins. Somehow, he realized that bringing up breakfast wasn't such a great idea because she started to cry harder.

_You're a real charmer, you know that? I mean, trying to comfort her and only making her cry harder. Wow, good one._

Kazu gave himself one more chance to redeem himself and try help (third times the charm, ain't it?) before running away with his tail in between his legs and calling Kairi to handle the sobbing girl. That stupid brat Agito better not be clinging on to her though.

He hesitated before awkwardly putting a hand on her shoulder. "Want to talk about it?"

Ringo cried harder and leaned her head on his shoulder. Kazu felt confusion, shock, and panic run through him. What to do, what to do, what to do!...

"I got kicked out!" he heard the girl blurt out in between hiccups, sobs, and chokes.

"Um, hey calm down. Could you repeat that?"

"…T-The othe-ther girls m-made m-me leave the ro-oom," Ringo sniffed. "Th-Th-Th… They think I'm a-a-a s-s-s-slut!"

Warning bells went off in Kazu's head when Ringo began to wail louder. One wrong move and…

"H-Hey, calm down! Calm down, yeah? Take deep breaths. Come on, in" – Ringo painfully took a deep breath in, struggling not to choke on her sobs – "and out" – she let it out shakily. "Another one. In" – breathe – "and out" – exhale. Kazu studied her before asking, "Better?"

Ringo nodded silently, biting on her quivering lips.

"So, what's this about getting kicked out?"

Ringo took a few more deep breaths to collect herself. She scrunched up her face in disgust. "They're angry because I told them I like Ikki but then in the other day was in the city alone with Kanon the other day – which," she added quickly to him, "was not my doing. It was an accident. I was getting money out of the ATM and when I turned around, everyone but Kanon was gone."

Kazu nodded for her to continue.

Ringo looked down at her hands and sighed. "Emily defended me," she gave a small smile as she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, "so I didn't give it much thought. I wasn't careful enough. She saw us," Ringo looked dead straight into Kazu's eyes now. "Yesterday, when we were having our 'deep and meaningful conversation' which was about you and her," she laughed in poor humour. "She got jealous and jumped to conclusions (obviously since your relationship has been so rocky lately) so when I arrived back in our room she had all the girls jump me and tell me off for pursuing after more than one guy (one of which was already someone else's boyfriend) and for being a… a slut," she spat like there was something sour tasting on her tongue. She smiled bitterly and shrugged. "That's all there is to it. Now I'm homeless," she laughed half-heartedly.

Kazu attempted a half-smile. "I would offer you a place to crash at the guys' room but that would just make things worse, wouldn't it."

Ringo shook her head and scoffed. "World war three would start."

Kazu grinned. "Well, we're going to have to do everything we can to avoid that, now won't we?"

Silence settled between them as the two newly found friends slash allies stared out into the forest ahead.

* * *

"Ne, Kairi-chan…" Ringo smiled nervously. She trembled in front of Kairi, shifting her weight from one foot to the other whilst holding her luggages in front of her. "A-Ano… do you mind if I stayed in your room tonight? I-I…"

Kairi put her hand in front of the girl to silence her. She dropped it before giving the distressed girl a small smile. "It's okay," she said gently, "I don't need a reason why. We're friends, aren't we? Friends help each other out without a reason."

Ringo felt tears surface and bit her quivering lip. "H-Hai," she nodded. "Thank you; thank you, thank, thank you…"

Kairi smiled softly before happily grabbing the other girls hand and tugging her to their room. "Sorry there isn't much space… Um, you can put your stuff here," Kairi offered.

Ringo smiled in gratitude before gasping when an idea came to her mind. "Ne, Kai-chan! I brought along some chess! Want to play?"

Kairi blinked. "C-Chess? Um, what's…'_chess'_?"

Ringo gasped. "Come on! I'll teach you! It's really interesting! You see, there's tactics involved and not just luck, you need to know some moves and now to move around the board… just like A.T.! Here, I'll show you show you how to play it…"

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll go get it," Kairi said as she hopped up and went to open it. Before she could even invite whoever it was in, Ikki barged in and stormed over to the unsuspecting Ringo, nearly squishing Kairi against the wall with the door.

"Huh, I'll just leave you two alone then…" Kairi muttered. "Don't be an idiot, Kiki-chan," she gave him a hard look, but he waved her off with his hand, never taking his blazing eyes off the fidgety pink head in front of him.

Once the girl was out of the room, Ikki swiped his hand across the chess board, causing the chess pieces to fall onto the ground. Ringo had cried out ("What are you doing?") but he remained oblivious in his rage.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

Ringo stood up in anger. "What do you mean by that? I don't believe I have done anything wrong!"

"Why are you staying in another room is what I'm asking," Ikki hissed with slitted eyes.

Ringo wavered but kept her resolve strong. "I don't need to tell you," she said stubbornly.

"W-What? You – I don't even – !" Ikki threw his hands into the air and paced around the room. He glared at the pink head and pointed a finger at her. "Is this to do with fish-eyes? Are you trying to make him jealous by staying in another room with a guy?" he sneered.

"Kanon?" Ringo blinked. "I don't see how – Oh why are you so stupid? Can't you see anything that's right in front of you?" she shouted back. Why hadn't he noticed her feelings for him (and _not_ Kanon) all these years? Stupid crow!

Ikki scowled. "I'm not blind. So? Why?"

"I don't see why me being here is bad –"

"Well, I wouldn't put it pass the brat to try pull a move on –"

"Oh stop being to blind! He's far too infatuated with Kairi-chan! Besides," Ringo glanced at boy nervously, "why do you care?" Hope swelled in her chest when she saw hesitation in his eyes. But it was gone in an instant.

Ikki shrugged it off casually. "I don't," he scoffed.

Ringo felt something cut her heart and turned to hide the brimming tears. "Well, if you don't have anything else to say, then I should be getting ready for my date… with _Kanon_."

Ikki scowled before storming over to the door. He paused as he touched the doorhandle. The thought of Ringo and fish-eyes on a date together really didn't settle well in his gut. "Ringo, I – " He turned around to see her hunched form before rethinking his words. He scowled at his hesitation. "Whatever. Have fun on your date," he hissed.

Ringo turned around in rage. "I WILL!" she cried.

SLAM!

Ikki stood on the other side of the door. He could hear her wretched sobs through the thin walls. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh of frustration. "You're such a bastard," he said to himself.

"You are," came a quiet voice beside him.

Ikki jumped. He glared suspiciously (_How much had she heard?_) at the small raven haired girl beside him. "What are you doing?"

Kairi was quiet. "Kiki-chan should treat Ringo-chan better. Ringo-chan is very nice to Kiki-chan and cares very much for him." Her blue eye flashed dangerously at the boy. "The least you could do is support her through her problems."

Ikki was startled. "What problems – ?"

"Goodbye."

The door shut on his face.

He grimaced and grumbled to himself on the way back to his room.

_But seriously… What problems?_

Simca watched from around the corner and giggled in joy at the results of her scheme. "I've separated Ringo-chan from Ikki-kun and also made Kairi-chan angry at Ikki-kun~! Wah! You're so smart Simca!"

She turned around and hummed her way back to her room. Next target: the poor innocent Kururu who would probably faint before trying to make a move on Ikki.

"Ikki-kun will be mine~" she sang happily.

**TBC…**


	10. NOTICE please read

!NOTICE!

[I will take this down when I am able to post a new chapter. This is purely to inform readers and dispel worries.]

Hello everyone!

This has been on my mind for quite some time now and I've been getting people asking whether or not I'm continuing this story. I didn't feel okay leaving everyone who has been waiting patiently without news of my plans so here goes.

Yes, I am continuing the story. I plan on finishing the story perhaps sometime next year or the year after when I am in university and have a lot more free time.

That being said, I am in my last year of high school and I'm aiming to get a high end of year score. Although I have thought about the next chapter since I last updated, I am determined not to start writing the new chapter until I have finished my final exams in November. Especially after such a dramatic chapter, I feel that if I write the next chapter now, with all this stress and worry about school and stereotypical teenage girl problems (lol), then it won't be as great which will be a let down to both you guys and myself. Next update won't be until after November.

I hope you are all able to understand my reasons and wait for the next chapter. I have cherished every review, PM, and follower/favourite alert thus far and hope I can continue to receive more of your kind words of praise and support. It means a lot to me.

Moving on to another important matter:

WHAT WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE TO SEE IN THE NEXT OR FUTURE CHAPTERS?

I love drama and all but I am completely useless at coming up with my own. I'm not really one to involve myself into (excuse my French) bitch-fights so I'm not sure what's going to happen between Emily and Ringo and possibly Simca. Please help!

tl;dr Next chapter update after November 2012 because of stupid final exams and PM what you would like in the next/future chapters.

Thank you as always!

xKairix


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